hey have been dried upon the
iron plates in the furnace room; and this may likewise particularly
cause that astringent quality which is more experienced in all the
black than any of the green teas. According to Sigesbeck, the colours
of these teas are artificial; so that if these pernicious arts are used
even to give the tea a particular colour, there is no difficulty in
ascribing the cause of their injurious effects.

That the native virtues of these teas are liable to considerable
perversion is evident from the manner in which Meister relates they are
prepared. He says the leaves are put into a hot kettle just emptied of
boiling water, and that they are kept in this closely covered until
they are cold, when they are strewed upon the hot plates above
mentioned for drying. It is easy to conceive how the virtues of a leaf,
however salutary by nature, must be destroyed by such a process. Being
thus put into a steaming kettle, and suffered to remain there until
they are cold, must cause the greatest part of their Virtues to
evaporate, and the leaves to imbibe an unwholesome taint from the
effluvia of the steaming metal. It cannot, therefore, be ascertained
whether teas that are imported in Europe, after such a mutating
preparation, have the least remains of their original odour or flavour,
no more than they have of their qualities; but, on the contrary, it
seems impossible but that the original nature of this shrub is entirely
destroyed by an artificial preparation. Some falsely suppose that this
species of management is only to soften such of the leaves as are grown
too dry, and are therefore liable to break in the curling; but this
will evidently appear not the cause, when it is considered that the
greater part of the teas must dry in such a hot climate while they are
gathering: and as they are particularly anxious to send them in as
curious a curled state as possible, such teas must be thus moistened
again, in order to curl them afterwards in that perfect manner which is
performed on the iron plates of the furnace.

The opinion, therefore, of teas deriving their green colour from being
dried upon copper being founded on a misrepresentation of the manner in
which they are really prepared, a few observations upon the subject are
indispensibly necessary. For those who have always understood that the
detrimental qualities of foreign teas were the consequence of their
being dried upon copper, may perhaps imagine they cannot