THE TEA TRADE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5284, 2 March 1878, Page 1 (Supplement)

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 tfei is owing more to the suitability of the locality in' North China, whence the Mosoovite market is supplied, and which * affords more 1 frdgrant leaves than the southern districts, and also to the presence of- Russian overseers,” who 'givemore attention to the manipulations of the raw material than do the Chinese themselves. , Tor similar causes the teas of Japan, Assam, and India ore rapidly superseding those of China,, and .there is good reason’ to suppose' that the trade of tea in England‘will soon bo supplied by Indian teas andinthis country by Japanese. China has long been looked 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. , ■ ~ .5 ■ ; ■