The principal teas produced in Japan are described by Mr. Geo. P. Mitchell, Chief Tea Examiner, as follows:

"Sencha, ordinary tea.

Gyokuro, dew drop tea, very high grade.

Tencha, ceremony tea before grinding.

Motcha, ceremony tea ground into the powder as used.

Bancha, poor peoples tea, flat leaf tea made from prunings after picking.

The Japan teas imported are either pan fired - Kama-cha or basket fired - Kago-cha.

Regular schools are supported where the proper use of the ceremonial teas is taught in great detail. Particularly are the pupils instructed to venerate and praise the bowls in which the tea is served and to so order the drinking that no two persons touch the same part of its circumference to their lips. This is apparently the Japanese loving cup.

Different kinds of tea are also designated sometimes by the localities in which they grow, or the ports from which they are shipped."

Tea is cultivated in Japan by local farmers who have all the way from 1 to 20 acres under their control. The farmer either rents or owns the ground. If big enough, he has a small firing-place where the tea is put through a semifiring process. The local farmers sell to the collectors or country merchants, who bring it down to Kobe, Yokohama and Shizuoka, where the different toyas (tea merchants) are located. It is usually shipped in 100-pound boxes by rail or boat to these ports. The semifiring process followed by the local farmers consists of steaming the tea leaves in a basket, after which it is dried in trays and then given a light firing over a charcoal fire in wooden trays having paper bottoms, the tea being rolled by hand, it being then allowed to dry in a similar firing-tray but at a lower temperature. The rolling and firing process usually takes about 12 hours. The toyas sell to the Japanese or foreign exporters, who subject the tea to a further process of manufacture and then ship the tea to America.

1 Adapted with certain additions from Tea and Coffee Trade Journal.

The firing process followed in the tea-firing godowns at the ports named consists of stirring the leaves in hot firing-pans from 30 to 50 minutes and then in cold pans from 15 to 20 minutes. When finished the tea is taken to the packing godown where it is sifted to remove the dust and packed while still warm into the half chests, lined with lead, which are to convey it to the grocers and tea drinkers of America.

No coloring matters are now permitted in Japan teas. When our government decided to exclude all artificially colored teas, the Japanese government and the Central Tea Association quickly accepted the new ruling. It is highly desirable that all tea growing countries should take the same action.

Basket firing consists in simply re-firing the tea without any of the stirring process as practised in the pans. A bamboo basket, shaped like a dice-box, but open at both ends, is placed over a large iron brazier containing lighted charcoal (well covered with ashes) and the tea is strewed, about an inch in thickness, on a close-woven bamboo tray which fits the neck of the dice-box The baskets are occasionally removed from the brazier and the tea turned over by hand in order that all may be equally fired; they are carefully replaced on the brazier, without allowing any dust or leaves to fall through the tray on the charcoal, and in the course of 40 to 60 minutes the tea is ready for packing.

The foregoing description applies to the preparation of ordinary Japan tea, during which no fermentation of the leaf has been allowed to take place. But in the preparation of black tea (congou), of which a considerable quantity was made some seasons ago, fermentation has to occur. In this case the tea is withered in the sun and then rolled on tables by coolies for about 30 minutes, after which it is packed tightly in large round baskets and covered with a cloth for an hour or so and allowed to ferment. The leaf is then tipped out onto the rolling tables, well shaken out and rolled for 15 minutes more and fired on iron gauze sieves or in drum baskets over charcoal fires. The first process takes 45 minutes, and the drum baskets 70 minutes.1

1 The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, July, 1907, page 20.