In Teas of ordinary flavour the following rules hold good:--The darker the liquor the stronger the Tea, and the nearer the approach of the colour of the infused leaf to a uniform salmony brown, the purer the flavour. Whenever we see any black leaves mixed with it (the out-turn) the Tea has been over-fired, and we may either expect to find the strength burnt out of it, or else to find it marred by having a burnt or smoky flavour incorporated with it. When you come across an altogether black or dirty brown out-turn, you may be certain of pale liquor containing little or no strength and no flavour to speak of, unless sometimes it be sour. This is a quality which I shall now touch upon, and regret that I cannot with any certainty give any reliable information whereby the planter may guard against this greatest of faults. It may have various grades,--slightly sourish, sourish, and sour, depreciating the value of the Tea, say, from 3_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._ per lb. The flavour of a sour Tea is hardly capable of description. It is not so acid as sour milk, in fact, not acid at all, rather a sweet flavour than otherwise being blended with the sourness. It is extremely unpleasant in its more developed grades, and cannot be easily understood except by actual tasting. To the uninitiated this fault is only perceptible in the more strongly marked instances, but to one of the trade the least tendency to it not only condemns the parcel at once, but also causes him to suspect any other lots made at the same or any other time by the same grower, and it is a curious but unaccountable fact that some two or three gardens (or growers?) almost always produce Teas having this fault. I will not cite all the different explanations that have been offered on this subject; I will simply quote the one which seems to have gained most ground, and leave those more competent than myself to express any opinion on the subject. The cause assigned to which I refer is that the Tea leaf after being picked is allowed to remain too long in the raw state before being fired, during which time it undergoes a process of fermentation; some then say that this causes sourness, while others maintain that the fermentation is absolutely necessary for the production of a Black Tea. The fact that we never meet with sourness in a Green Tea, one feature in the preparation of which being that it is fired almost immediately on being gathered, goes to corroborate this view.