The taste for tea being an acquired and not a natural one, it necessarily follows that persons who have been accustomed to a certain variety or flavor in tea, want that particular kind and will be dissatisfied if any other is given them. Consumers of wine have their fancies, so have users of ale or beer—one prefers a dry, another a sweet wine—one a mild and another a bitter beer. This being the case, it becomes essential to the success of the tea-dealer to study and learn what variety of tea or what particular flavor his customers have been accustomed to before attempting to cater to it. This is a question somewhat difficult to answer, as not only is there a wide difference of taste in tea in the different parts of the country, but in every large town or city alone the varieties and flavors in demand are so numerous and various that most dealers are compelled to mark out a distinct line for themselves. In the larger cities this is the most successful course to pursue, particularly if the kind and quality of the tea be kept regular and uniform the year round, as it secures the return again and again of the same customers for that particular tea, and thus keeps a business always steady and progressive. Even away from the larger cities it is well to follow this course, but while at first it may be found advisable to keep close to the established tea-taste of the section, a gradual change may be found good policy, as a dealer can by a little effort educate his trade in time to a particular variety or flavor of tea, for after all is said, and as remarked before, the taste for a certain tea is only an acquired one. He may, for instance, be selling a heavy-bodied Amoy or dark-leaved Foochow Oolong and suddenly change off to a fine Formosa. In such a case his trade would be very apt to find fault at first, notwithstanding that the latter may be choicer and more expensive than the former, but by ignoring the complaints at the beginning and continuing to insist upon their taking it, eventually succeed in educating them to acquire a taste for it. Still the importance of retaining and maintaining the quality and flavor to which his customers are longest accustomed cannot be overestimated, for no dealer can afford to jeopardize his business or can expect success if his teas one month consist of fine flavored teas, the next month of heavy and dull and the third of a sharp and pungent kind. To maintain this necessary regularity, must be admitted, is difficult, as no two consecutive importations of tea are exactly alike although selected from the same picking or chosen from those grown in the same district the variations may still be so wide as to cause dissatisfaction among consumers. Therefore it becomes essential to the success of the dealer to pay particular attention to the quality of his tea, as there is no article he deals in which will attract trade or retain it longer than good tea, a fine tea creating more comment in a town or neighborhood