Section III Tea, Coffee, Chocolate, and Sugar
Tea
No article of consumption is more subject to adulteration than the pleasant one which forms the principal ingredient of the tea-table. It is not only adulterated by the Chinese vender, but it undergoes sophistication by the Chinese artist. By the former several vegetable productions, particularly a kind of moss, are mixed among genuine tea, and often sold by the antemundane subjects of “the Brother of the Sun and Moon, and The Light of Nations,” in its stead.
Among the manufacturers and venders of tea in our “fair isle”—“the land of the wise, the eloquent, the free,”—the dried leaves of the birch, ash, or elder tree, and particularly those of the privet or white thorn, and the black thorn or sloe, (both which last-mentioned specimens possess more of the qualities of the tea leaf than any other known vegetable,) are manufactured and fabricated to represent this delicious article of English female consumption: and the colouring, dyeing, and staining process is accomplished by the agency of terra japonica, logwood, verdigris, copperas, Prussian blue, carbonate of copper, Dutch pink, &c. by the English, and, it is said, even by the Chinese artist; which ingredients (namely, the five last-mentioned,) are among the most potent poisons. According to Mr. Accum’s testimony (Culinary Poisons, p. 220, note,) Mr. Twining, the eminent tea-dealer, asserts that “the leaves of spurious tea are boiled in coppers with copperas and sheep’s dung.” And it is a known fact that tea-leaves are purchased, from the London coffee houses and shops, by a regular set of men, who make their weekly rounds for the purpose, to be re-dried and coloured.
As it may be interesting to my readers to be informed of the progress of the “march of intellect” in the imitative process of preparing sham tea, and to have an opportunity of admiring the ingenuity of fraud and villany displayed in the fabrication, I shall endeavour to gratify their reasonable curiosity.
The white thorn and the sloe, or black thorn, as I have already said, are the principal leaves employed in the fabrication of the sham or imitative teas, on account of their possessing more of the qualities of the tea-leaf than any other known vegetable. From the white thorn is manufactured the green tea; and from the black thorn, or sloe, the black variety. These leaves are gathered and collected from the hedges around the metropolis, by a number of agents hired by the fabricators; and these sub-imps in the “black art” are rewarded for their honest labours with a remuneration of from one penny to twopence a pound. I have been told by one of those worthies that he is able to make between two and three pounds a week by his “vocation,” and has not “hard labour too;” for he likes, as he says, “to play oft at times a bit of the gentleman.” And, by a tea-leaf collector, I was once informed that his usual returns, or rather clear gains, were between six and seven pounds per week, and this “for only mornings’ work.” Of course, I suppose, like other large “capitalists” and “the moneyed interests,” he put on his silk stockings in the evenings, and exhibited his “sweet person” at “Almacks,” or some of the fashionable “Hells,” or “Evening,” or “Musical parties” at the “West End.” But, as to the indisputable reality of this “transmogrification,” your deponent knoweth not.
But to the subject in hand. The sloe, or black thorn, leaves are first boiled; then, when the water is squeezed from them in a press, they are baked on a flat iron plate; and, when dry, rubbed between the hands to produce the curl of the genuine tea. The colour is then produced by the application of Dutch pink, and a small quantity of logwood; when, “mirabile dictu!” “good, wholesome, nutritious black tea” is produced equal to, and probably surpassing the specimens of the monopolists of Leadenhall-street.
The process is equally rapid and efficacious in the fabrication of green tea; the leaves being boiled, pressed, and dried in the same manner as I have described, takes place with the black imitation-tea, only that the drying process is performed on plates of copper. The blueish hue or bloom observable on genuine tea is produced by mixing with the leaves Prussian blue or Dutch pink, in fine powder, while the leaves are heating upon the plates, and verdigris is added to complete the operation. The leaves are then sifted, to separate them from the thorns and stalks; and should there not be a “quantum sufficit” of the fine green bloom (the indubitable criterion of genuineness in the estimation of our “fair countrywomen,”—the ancient, as well as “the bewitching;”) the operator kindly and generously adds, more verdigris and Dutch pink or Prussian blue. And again “pure, genuine, exhilarating” green tea is produced as quick as thought, and that even in the darkness of a town cellar, some few feet under ground.
The profits on these transmutations are enormous; Mr. Accum, at p. 205 of his useful book, says that it has been stated to be from £300 to £600 per cent. And the extent to which the nefarious traffic is carried is still more surprising. According to a report of the Committee of the House of Commons in the year 1783, it is stated that “the quantity of fictitious tea which was annually manufactured from sloe and ash-tree leaves, in different parts of England, to be mixed with genuine teas, was computed at more than Four Millions of Pounds.” This computation was made when the genuine teas, sold by the East-India Company, at their sales, amounted to only six millions of pounds annually. What then must be the amount of the illicit traffic now, when the Company’s sales are about thirty millions of pounds annually! This proves that the ingenious author of the following lines, which appeared in the Literary Journal, vol. 1, p. 14, cannot be supposed to be “much out in his reckoning:”
“China and Porto, now farewell;
Let others buy what you’ve to sell,
Your Port and your Bohea;
For we’ve our native sloe divine,
Whose fruit yields all our Porto wine,
Whose leaves make all our Tea.”
But John, “with all his easy gullibility,” will, no doubt say, “this is all stuff; show me proofs.” Well, John, thou art a good creature, thou wilt never believe “aught against thy enemy,” until he hath robbed thee of thy senses, and what is dearer to thee, thy “stuff.” But to prevent a too frequent repetition of thy misfortune, I will open the budget to thy admiring eyes. Look, John, over thy files of the London Newspapers, particularly the “Times” and “Courier,” from March to July, in the year 1818, and there thou mayest entertain thy optics and cerebral nerves with a goodly array of prosecutions and convictions of manufacturers and venders of factitious tea. In one instance, thou wilt read of £840 damages being given against one culprit. Nor is this all of the illicit doings, John. There have been many prosecutions and convictions since the time specified, with which I recommend thee to recreate “thy often infirmity” of incredulity. Mr. Accum, at page 203 of his work, says that, in Scotland and Ireland, the penalties imposed for this offence “amounted, during a few months, to more than fifteen thousand pounds!”
With respect to the medicinal or deleterious effects of tea on the animal economy, it would be misplaced to occupy the pages of a work of this nature with their discussion. To such of my readers as may wish to inform themselves on this subject, I recommended the perusal of “The Oracle of Health and Long Life; or, Plain Rules for the Preservation and Attainment of Sound Health and Vigorous Old Age. By Medicus;” as the intelligent author of that publication has discussed the matter with great ingenuity, and furnished a variety of hints and information calculated to be of essential service to the consumers of this most important article of Asiatic imports. Here it will be more useful to detail the ready tests or methods of detecting its adulteration. For it is an undoubted fact, as “Medicus” observes, that many of the noxious qualities attributed to tea, arise from the two-fold sophistication which it is frequently doomed to undergo both from the Chinese and English adulterator before it reaches the hands of the consumer.
Where it is suspected that tea is adulterated with the leaves of other shrubs, the fraud, if not discoverable by the appearance and fragrant odour of the article, may be detected by putting a grain and a half of blue vitriol into a cupful of the infusion, when, if it be genuine green tea, and set in a good light, it will appear of a fine light blue. If it be genuine bohea, it will turn to a deep blue, next to black; but when an adulteration has been made in either case, a variety of colours, as green, black, yellow, &c. will be seen in the samples submitted to the experiment.
Where the damaged and ordinary green teas or tea leaves have been prepared with japan earth, or other adulterating ingredients, for the purpose of giving the leaves the colour, and the infusion the tincture of bohea tea, the fraud may be detected by either of the following tests or methods: 1. A less quantity of this dyed tea will give a deeper colour to the same proportion of water than if the experimented articles were genuine. 2. The colour it gives the water will also be of a reddish brown, whereas, if the article be genuine, it should be dark. 3. When the leaves have been washed, by standing a little, they will look greener than good bohea. 4. This dyed tea is generally much larger than the genuine specimens; it is, therefore, always advisable to buy the small leaved bohea; remembering to examine whether the ingenuity of the artist has not been at work to break or crumble it into pieces, so as to disguise the size of the leaves: for the adulterator’s wits are always at work in “the black art.” 5. The liquor drawn off, which should be smooth and balsamic to the palate, tastes rougher and harsher than the genuine tea does. 6. If milk is poured into it, it will rise of a reddish colour, instead of a dark or blackish brown. 7. A little copperas put into this last-mentioned liquor will turn it to a light blue, instead of a deep blue inclining to black. 8. Spirits of hartshorn make good tea of a deep brownish colour, after it has stood awhile, similar to new drawn tincture of saffron; but the same effect does not appear when the tea is bad.
When green tea is counterfeited by dyeing bad bohea with green vitriol the cheat may be detected by the following means: 1. By putting a piece of gall into the infusion it will turn it to a deep blackish colour, which would not be the case were vitriol or copperas not present. 2. If the infusion made of this tea be of a pale green, and incline to a blueish dye, it is bad. 3. Spirit of hartshorn will give it a slight purple tinge, and precipitate a small sediment, instead of a deep greenish yellow after it has stood about half a dozen minutes. 4. Where the adulteration has been made with carbonate of copper, the fraud is detected, by shaking up a tea-spoonful of the suspected article in a phial with two tea-spoonsful of liquid ammonia, diluted with half its bulk of water; when the liquor, if copper be present, will exhibit a fine blue colour. Mr. Accum in his work, p. 219-221, gives other methods for testing adulterated tea.
As a general and ready test to distinguish genuine tea from the sloe, or black thorn, and the white thorn leaf, make an infusion of it in the common way, and then spread out some of the largest leaves to dry; when, if the tea be genuine, the leaf will appear to be narrow in proportion to its length, and deeply notched or serrated at the edges, and the end or extremity acutely pointed; while the sloe, or black thorn leaf is notched or jagged at the edges very slightly, and is obtusely pointed. Another distinction also is, that the genuine leaf is of a lively pale green colour, its surface smooth and glossy, and its texture very delicate; while the adulterated leaf is of a dark olive green colour, its texture much coarser and surface more uneven. The leaves of the white thorn, when moistened and spread, have a less resemblance to the genuine tea-leaf than is the case with the sloe-leaf. The leaves of the other imitative or sham teas have still a less resemblance, and for this reason they are but seldom used. With respect to the different kinds of tea imported from China the shape of the leaf is the same in all of them, though its size varies; for all the varieties are the produce of the same plant; the difference of quality and properties depend chiefly on the difference of climate, soil, culture, age, time of gathering, and mode of drying the leaves. The difference of the size of the leaf is occasioned in a great measure by the different seasons at which it is gathered.
Coffee
Several substitutes are vended by the grocers and coffee-dealers, instead of the coffee-berry, when purchased in a ground state, or allowed to pass through the vender’s mill. Among many others may be mentioned ground dried acorns, horse-chestnuts, horse-beans, pigeon-beans, peas, nuts, barley, rice, wheat, parsnips, carrots, &c. but the best imitation of the real berry is obtained by roasting blue succory, or rye, with the addition of a few almonds. As all these articles, however, have but little resemblance in flavour to real coffee, except what they acquire from the torrefaction, and their empyreumatic oil, they are seldom vended solely by themselves, except to the coffee-shops of London, or those whom the dealers consider as “a plucked pigeon,” but are ingeniously mixed with a portion of the genuine berry.
Friend John will, no doubt, as usual, call to his assistance his native incredulity, and ask for proof against his “pals,” the grocer and coffee-dealer. To satisfy his just curiosity let him look to the same file of papers to which he was referred respecting tea, and there he will have no reason to be longer hard of belief. He will there find that one “gentleman grocer,” disliking the trouble of grinding horse-beans, pigeon’s beans, &c. proceeded by short hand, and threw in a dash (not a pinch) of gravel or sand; for which act of kindness towards his customers he was convicted in the penalty of £50. See the case of The King against Chaloner, a tea and coffee dealer.
But, probably, John, when he finds himself no longer able to cling to his strong hold—incredulity—will exclaim, shew us, then, your chemical test and analysis.—Ah! John, the coffee sophisticator is too much for us; his art is beyond the reach of short or long tests, or of hard or easy ones: he may do as he likes, unless thou canst put thy hoof upon some of his nicely packed-up parcels; and to accomplish this purpose thou, or thy representative, the poor, badly-paid, half-starved, ill-requited Excise-officer, must detect him in his machinations on his own proper “dominium” or “natale solum:” scarcely any other detection will satisfy that old lady’s scrupulosity and exactness—that “golden calf” of thy idolatry—that “all perfect and superhuman mass of incongruity and intricacy”—the law. Thou, therefore, seest plainly that the only certain way to have a drop of the “pure stuff” is to purchase the berry in its raw state and roast it, and what is still more important, to grind it thyself. But, if thou dost not understand all these processes to a-t—, thou mayst find them, with some other very interesting arcana of the science, detailed in a work which I shall shortly publish for the instruction and guidance of housekeepers of all kinds and descriptions, and which I shall entitle “The Housekeepers’ Guide to Domestic Comfort, Household Management, and Practical Economy.” This, John, I intend shall be a rare work—quite a tit-bit for thy fancy; and the price a mere “four-penny matter.” It shall not be a “marrowless collection of shreds and patches, and cuttings and pastings,” selected or stolen out of old useless books, but a collection of practical facts, conducing to domestic comfort and real economy.
As I must, friend John, have, by the foregoing particulars, alarmed thy coffee-drinking propensities, it is but fair to let thee into the secret of ascertaining good coffee.
Know then, friend Bull, and all ye little Bulls, who may have the satisfaction of deriving your paternity from that ancient and honourable stock, that coffee, commercially considered, is of three sorts: the Arabian, or Mocha coffee, the East-Indian coffee, and the West-Indian coffee. Of these, the Mocha, or Turkey, coffee is generally esteemed the best, and is so stated by all the writers on the subject; but this is not the case: for the Java coffee is considered, by all competent judges, to be superior, as it contains a considerably larger proportion of oil. Among the East-Indian species, that of Bourbon is preferred. Of the West-Indian produce, the growth of the French colonies is most esteemed, particularly that of Martinique. The coffee of Surinam, Berbice, Demerara, and Cayenne, is the least valued. The inferiority of the coffee of the British colonies is supposed to be occasioned by its being put to dry in houses where sugar and rum are kept, or by being set in vessels freighted with those commodities, or other substances of a strong scent, from which the coffee imbibes the flavour.
Mocha, or Turkey, coffee (namely, in a raw or unroasted state) should be chosen of a greenish olive hue, fresh and new, free from any musty smell, the berries of a middling size, and clean and plump. Good West-Indian coffee should also be of a greenish cast, fresh, free from mouldy smells, and the berry small. East-Indian coffee is of a pale, and partly of a deep yellow colour. Java coffee is distinguished by its being a large, light, yellow berry.
These are the general tests or methods for ascertaining the quality of raw coffee; those for roasted are similar as to the size of the berry: the other criteria are that it should not be too much roasted, but of a bright chestnut colour, and of a fresh fragrant smell.
I cannot, I apprehend, close this article more appropriately and serviceably, than by exhorting my readers to recollect that the presence of any of the adulterating ingredients in coffee is of the greatest prejudice to health, and is apt to cause a distressing weight on the stomach if the adulterated coffee be used daily for some time. The detail of the beneficial and injurious effects is ably stated in “The Oracle of Health and Long Life.”
Chocolate
Chocolate is frequently adulterated with noxious ingredients, particularly vanilla and castile soap; the first article is used for giving it a fragrant odour, and the second for causing it to froth when it is dissolved in the water: a large proportion of flour, also, instead of the kernel of the cocoa-nut, makes up the composition.
Chocolate, to be good, should be of a brown colour, inclining to red; when broken, it should appear of a smooth and uniform consistence in the fracture, without any granulated particles, and should melt easily in the mouth, leaving no roughness or astringency, but rather a cooling sensation upon the tongue; which last quality is the most decisive criterion of its genuineness.
Sugar
Considerable ingenuity is exerted in the adulteration of sugar. The moist sugars are mixed up with sand, salt, flour, and a variety of other ingredients of little or no cost. The loaf, or lump sugar receives the addition of lime, chalk, gypsum, plaster of paris, or any white material which will save expense to the “refiner.”
Lump, or loaf sugar, to be good, should be close, heavy, and shining: though, by the bye, some of the craft have lately contrived to introduce some sparkling particles of marble, to produce the shining appearance. That which easily breaks, and appears porous or spongy and of a dull cast, has not been properly manufactured, and has an undue proportion of lime, &c. in its composition. Of the moist kind, chuse that which is distinguished by the sharpness, brightness, and loose texture of the grain, and which, when rubbed between the finger and the thumb, is not easily pulverized: those kinds are to be preferred which have a peculiar grey hue, in conjunction with the brightness and other criteria just mentioned. The soft and close grained sugars, though of a good colour, should be rejected as saturated with too much earthy matter. The East India varieties do not contain so much saccharine matter as the produce of the West India colonies. Neither is the crush-lump, which is manufactured from treacle and employed by grocers for mixing with the common sorts of brown sugar, equal to the West India produce in sweetening power. Adulterated sugar is readily discovered by the taste and sediment left at the bottom of the vessel in which it is dissolved. The presence of crush-lump may be recognized by the uniformity of the appearance of moist sugar.
Rules for the choice of currants, raisins, rice, and other articles of grocery, are detailed in “Domestic Comforts and Economy,” a work containing a store of information for the economizing and skilful management of household expenditure.