Comparatively little is known of the art or principle of mixing or blending of teas in this country, American dealers and consumers alike being averse to the practice, regarding it as about on a parity with other methods of sophistication. Such objections are entirely erroneous, as it is an acknowledged principle that a combination of different varieties of wheat make better flour, the same being true of coffees and other articles of diet. So that the practice of blending teas, if properly understood and skillfully performed, would prove a more satisfactory and profitable one to both consumer and dealer. The object is not, as the public may imagine, to lower the quality or reduce the cost to the dealer, but simply to produce better tea and obtain a finer and more desirable flavor than that yielded by any single variety, one giving better satisfaction to the consumer at a more moderate price and at the same time allowing a larger margin of profit to the dealer. As an illustration, a dealer may be selling a tea possessing a suitable flavor, but be lacking in body or light in liquor, whereas, by adding to it one or two other teas possessing these qualities the defect is rectified and a full-flavored heavy-bodied tea is produced and the two latter also improved. It follows then that by the judicious blending or mixing of three to five teas, differing in variety and grade, a more uniform and pleasing tea, heavier in body, richer in liquor and flavor can be obtained by this principle at a more moderate cost.