That tea is our favourite drink is very generally known, but people may perhaps ignore the considerable part that it plays in our lives. I will not speak here either about its cultivation or the process of its manufacture, which are pretty well known. I will limit myself to telling the use that is made of this precious aromatic plant. Since tea has been known in China, a part of the first pickings of the harvest is sent each year to the Emperor by the authorities in the producing districts. This is called “The Tea Tribute.” Formerly, the Court used to distribute tea to the officials, and the usual presents consisted of tea. Another thing shows the importance that we attach to this article, and that is, that we have tea-inspectors, just as we have salt-superintendents, who are high functionaries specially commissioned for the purpose. Instead of cafÉs, as in Paris, we have nothing but tea-houses in China, and these may be seen everywhere. It is at these tea-houses that people meet to talk, to rest, and to enjoy the cool air. When you call on a friend the first thing that he does is to offer you a cup of tea. When you write an invitation to a friend to come and spend some time at your house, the formula you use is, “The tea is ready.”

Whilst you are waiting in a shop for your orders to be executed, the shopman hands you a cup of tea to help you to be patient. In the very hot weather, charitable people in towns always put outside their doors great urns of tea for thirsty passers-by to drink from, and these urns are refilled as soon as they have been emptied. Those are our public fountains. There is always tea ready in the workrooms and other places where workpeople meet. Tea is the only drink used by the people. Amongst the highest in the land there are also numerous tea drinkers. It is thought that this beverage has the gift of rendering one’s mind more lucid. It is always green tea that is drunk in the upper classes—the little leaves taken from the bud at its first opening and dried in the sun. This is our ChÂteau-Lafitte. As to black tea, if is made of leaves which have reached maturity and have been dried artificially. This is all the difference that there is between the two kinds. No artificial colouring of the leaves is ever resorted to. Qualities vary, of course, according to the localities in which the tea is grown, just as is the case with wine. The best tea is that grown on a tree which grows in the garden of a monastery which is situated on the Ou-I mountain, in the interior of the province of Fou-Kien. The priests do not sell it, but keep it for the use of distinguished visitors. They give you about ten leaves in a cup not much bigger than an egg-cup, and pour on it water taken from an excellent spring which is situated near the monastery. The cup is covered for a few moments to allow the tea to draw. The scent that rises from the cup when the tea is ready is most exquisite, and a cup of this tea not only produces a feeling of great bodily comfort, but also has a most exhilarating effect on the mind.

I once amused myself by placing a few grains of boiled rice in a cup of that tea. The rice was almost immediately dissolved. This made me understand how energetic is the effect of this beverage, its beneficial action on the human body, and the impossibility of drinking much of it. Tea is so essential a factor in Chinese alimentation that authors like Lu-U have published whole books on the way of preparing this drink. These books are our Mrs. Beeton’s. Tea, as a matter of fact, to be good, must be made with rain or spring water heated to a certain degree of heat. The water should not be allowed to boil more than a few minutes, and, when bubbles begin to rise, it should be taken off the fire. The utensil in which the water is boiled should be made of certain materials and no others. True connoisseurs only use pots made of Ni-Hing, a kind of terra-cotta ware which is not varnished inside. Thus prepared, the tea is an economical and healthy beverage. It is drunk continually and at all hours of the day, even just before going to bed. Its effect is never an exciting one. Apropos of this, one of my compatriots has said that the Europeans, and specially the English, do not know how to make tea. In the first place, they let it boil. Secondly, they add strong spirits, which destroy its taste; or sugar, which makes it lose its savour. Tea should be allowed to infuse for five minutes at the most, and should be of a clear colour, barely yellow in hue. The U-Tchien, or Jade-Spring monastery, is situated in the province of King-Tiou, in the midst of rocks and waterfalls, and is surrounded with tea plantations, which produce tea-leaves of the size of a man’s hand, which are called “The Tea of the Hand of the Immortals.” An octogenarian who lived in that neighbourhood had the face of quite a young man, and enjoyed the very best health, and used to tell anybody who would listen to him that he owed his good health and his youthful appearance to the use of this tea. It is not surprising that so beneficial a drink should have inspired the poets. There is an innumerable quantity of single lines about tea in our literature. Here are a few specimens of these proverbial sayings which refer to tea:—

The harvest time varies according to the district. In some parts the harvest is picked before the rainy season. In others, it is begun at the sound of the first clap of thunder; in other parts, the first cry of the cuckoo is the signal for the pickers to begin their work. All sorts of stories are told about our tea, amongst others, that the tea we export has already been used and dried again. That is a mere fable. The tea we export is of average quality, and is so abundantly to be had that there is no necessity for us to take recourse to the disgusting expedients suggested. I may add that the export trade is almost entirely in the hands of European business houses. Besides, all our old tea-leaves are used in China as sea-weed is used in France for stuffing mattresses, cushions, and so on. Thus tea, after having fortified our bodies during the day, affords us a bed at night.