COMPRESSED TEA.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 37, 16 February 1878, Page 3

COMPRESSED TEA.

I At present "compressed" or "consolidated" tea attracts a good deal of notice, but it is yet doubtful i if anything is gained by the process. To.understand the advaatagesclaiuied for it, »t is necessary to know something of tbe process of compression, wliieh is- briefly described a.3 follows m the Journal of the society of Arts :-j-rThie tea fe \ve > igh*Bcl out by girls, \»tKo almost exclusively carry ..oiit. the£ vprpcess from, beginning to end, into; quarter* poanda^ winch, one after another/ are passed into moulds on a revolving iron table, a piece- of iffietal exac-tly' fitting the mould being placed on/top. As. the table revolves, 'each mould cowaes under the strake of an hydraulic ram, which exercises a -pressure of about eighty tons on each quarter pound of tea reducing it to one-third its bulk, and consolidating it into a noa'ss^ marked ovit by depressions into-i divisions of exactly half au ounce each m weight. As the table further- revolves, each cake is ejected from its mould, and the process, m whic.h, by ; the^way, not a v:par.tiqle of nioistute is f 'uaßd^ is 'eogiplfttedi; The effect of this enormous pressure is stated to. be to thoroughly break the cells and smaller vesicles of the tea leaves so that ; the theioe and aromatic oil are set perfectly free, and the mass of tea is more easily affected by boiling watery, m which it at pace falls to -piwesw The practical result' is that the liquor produced from consolidated tea, after ordinary infusion iis considerably stronger I than that produced "from loose tea, varying according to the quality of •the tea subjpete&to the process* the higher class teas snowing- even""* greater per centage than lower qualities/ It is said j;hat, the same weight of co-mpressea as of ldbse tea at similar prices, will m five minutes give- the same strength of liquor as can b^ pbtained fromi' loose te,a. m fivbhours^ an^ thjjit the. quality and flavor ai f ei unimpaired. : 9Tfee 7 oth^r .advautagea claimed- for it are that adulterations, are at once detected m the compressed tea, and it keeps better and occupies . twa-tliirds less j space than loose tear dbes. '"Whether lit really does possess these advantages or not is likely soon to be ascertained, as MrHardwicfed propol^d a resolution, which was passed, at the recent Gonfeponce;! tb« theeffect. " ' That a critical examination of the merits of treating: tea ; be instituted vttth the view of eliciting definitely by comparing the amount, if , any- to :"whicfe^^ tea'iseiinauced by the process, and what are the advantages, the public would obitaiin werci-such-tre^trneiit adapted "