A Thriving Industry

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 90, 28 January 1892, Page 3

A Thriving Industry

THE EMPIRE TEA COMPANY. Amongst the Anglo-Saxon race tea is one of the prime necessities of life. The love of it has strongly impregnated the blood of our people, and Arctic cold and torrid heat arc alike powerless to lessen the liking tor it. But the popular taste has become very fastidious. It insists upon its favourite beverage being of approved flavour. Hence has arisen the practice of toa Wending, which has been carried to such a pitch as to have attained almost the distinction of a fine art. No firm in this Colony have studied this art with more care and greater application lhan Messrs W. and G. Turnbull and Co., otherwise known as the Empire Tea Company. Unlike many of their competitors, they have not been content to produce a moderately good article at a very low price, but while always paying due regard to proper economy, they have aimed at procuring the very finest and most fragrant of teas, and gaining for themselves the reputation of turning out the richest blends in the market. That they have accomplished their purpose' is best proved by the fact that although they have nine different brands of teas ranging iq price from 'h to 3s a lb, the public manifest a strong predileotion for the higher priced varieties. This is all the more gratifying proof of the high appreciation in whioh Messrs Turnbull and Co.'s blends are held by the general public, as tea blend* ers in other parts of the Colony assert that they find a difficulty in obtaining a large sale for any variety of tea but that which is retailed at 2s a lb. The tea business of this firm has so rapidly and steadily expanded that it now affords constant employment for 14 hands, and its operations occupy the whole of the top floor of their large warehouse in Customhouse quay. In fact, the firm have for some time been contemplating the expediency of erecting a building for this special department alone. Amongst the employees are two experienced tea blenders who served a long apprenticeship to the trade in London. All the latest and most improved appliances are twed, and neither pain nor expense is ■pared to maintain the high repute which toe Empire Company's brands have gained. The very latest contrivance in use is a highly ingenious machine for tea-packing, which Mr Nicholas Eeid was fortunate enough to secure during his recent visit to Europe and it is probably the only one of the kind in use throughout the whole of the Australasian group of colonits. It compresses the tea by a single movement into neat and symmetrical lead packages, which then are placed in the attractive wrappers so familiar to the public. The most scrupulous care is token to ensure a high standard of quality for the various blends. No sample of t«a is allowed to leave the warehouse without being sub jecled to frequent and severe tests. Those tests are applied right np to the time of packing, and any tea that is in the least degree "off" is promptly thrown out. In this way pub ie confidence is both assured and justified. The Company's various bjenda, and the. prices kfc tfhjch ttyev are. sole), are as, follows :— Ilifcado (two varieties), 2s per lb ; pure Ceylon, 2s per lb; Empire, 2s 2d per lb ; Buffalo, 2s 44 pfcr lb; Crescent. 2s 6d per lb ; Elephant, 2s 8d per lb ; JEangra Valley, 2s lQd per \b ; Houdah (an Jndian teal, 3s per lb ; Dragon (finest Ceylon). 8s per lb. Nearly all the Company's teas are Indian and Ceylon.— N,Z. Times.