THE TEA TRADE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 316, 2 March 1878, Page 21

THE TEA TRADE.

The only great tea-drinking nation now exclusively supplied from China is Russia, the greater part of that country's imports being brought overland. . The teas introduced into Russia are noted for their excellence and fine flavor, and it has been a popular belief that the superiority of Russian tea is due to its being land-carried. It is now known, however, that the cause of this superiority of Russian tea is owing more to the suitability of the locality in North China, whence the Moscovite market is supplied, and which affords more fragrant leaves than the southern districts, and also to the presence of Russian overseei-s, who give more attention to the manipulations of the raw material than do the Chinese themselves. For similar causes the teas of Japan, Assam, and India are rapidly superseding those of China, and there is good reason to suppose that the trade of tea in England will soon be supplied by Indian teas and in this country by Japanese. China has long been look d upon as the home of the tea plant, but formidable rivals have entered the field, and unless the Chinese can keep pace with the march of science in converting their tea into a superior article of consumption, they will find their foreign trade in this particular staple cut off, and that the knell of one of their great industries has sounded.