The Natural History of the Tea-Tree, with Observations on the Medical Qualities of Tea, and on the Effects of Tea-DrinkingLettsom, John Coakley
History
The Natural History of the Tea-Tree, with Observations on the Medical Qualities of Tea, and on the Effects of Tea-Drinking
Lettsom, John Coakley
Tea
[43] This renders what has been observed at the conclusion of SECT.
I. more probable.
[44] A certain moderate degree of heat preserved the verdure and
flavour better than a hasty exsiccation. In the first case, it is
necessary to repeat the roasting oftener.
[45] Infusions of fine bohea Teas do not differ a great deal in
colour from those of green. To spirit they equally impart a fine deep
green colour.
[46] I am informed by intelligent persons, who have resided some
time at Canton, that the Tea about that city affords very little
smell whilst growing. The same is observed of the Tea plants in
England; and also of the dried specimens from China. We are not hence
to conclude, that art alone conveys to Teas when cured the smell
peculiar to each kind; for our vegetables, grasses for instance, have
little or no smell till dried, and made into hay.
[47] See Thunberg’s Flora Japonica, from which work the Botanic
History of the Olea Fragrans is chiefly taken.
[48] The hundredth part of a grain of copper, dissolved in a pint of
liquor, strikes a sensible blue with volatile alkalies. Neumann’s
Chemistry, by Lewis, p. 62. The finest imperial and bloom Teas shewed
no sign of the presence of this metal by experiment.
[49] See Short on Tea, p. 16. Boerhaave attributed the verdure of
green Tea to this substance.
[50] “It is confidently said in the country, that no plates of copper
are ever employed for that purpose. Indeed, scarcely any utensil used
in China is of that metal, the chief application of which is for
coin. The earthen or iron plates are placed over a charcoal fire,
which draws all remaining moisture from the leaves, rendering them
dry and crisp.” Sir G. Staunton’s Embassy, Vol. II. p. 465.
[51] Kæmpfer, Amœnit. Exot. p. 625. History of Japan, Vol. II. App.
p. 10. 16.
[52] Osbeck’s Voyage to China, Vol. I. p. 299.
[53] This is called koitsjaa, that is, thick Tea, to distinguish it
from that made by infusion.
[54] An inferior kind of Tea is infused, and drank in the Chinese
manner. SECT. VI. II. and SECT. IX. I.
[55] History of China, Vol. IV. p. 22.
[56] In public roads, and in all places of much resort in Japan, and
even in the midst of fields and frequented woods, Tea booths are
erected; as most travellers drink scarcely any thing else upon the
road. Kæmpfer’s History of Japan, by Scheuchzer, Fol. Vol. II. p. 428.
[57] Myrica Gale. Goule, Sweet Willow, or Dutch Myrtle. Hudson’s
Fl. Angl. p. 368. Linn. System. Natur. Vol. III. p. 651. A plant of
peculiar fragrance, found in the North of England, Brabant, and other
Northern countries. Simon de Molingriis was the first who opposed
this opinion of Simon Paulli, by shewing the difference betwixt this
species of myrtle and the oriental Tea. See also Wilh. Leyl. epist.
apud Sim. Paulli comment. &c.
[58] Figures of the same were published in the Acta Haffniensia, and
German Ephemerides, Dec. 11. Ann. IV.
[59] Nouveau Voyage aux Iles de l’Amerique, Paris, 1721, 12mo. 6 vol.
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