It is very easy to make good tea if only people will take the trouble to attend to two or three little details con- cerning it. First, there is the tea itself. If this is not good of its kind, we may give up our attempts at once, for we shall never succeed in producing the fragrant, agreeable, mildly stimulating and cheering beverage which all Englishwomen love, and the majority of brain workers rely upon. For tea has had its triumphs, and “ has been honoured among beverages.” Hawthorne called it “an angel’s gift;” Miss Mitford said she could lie awake all night drinking it ; De Quincy, who used to drink it from eight o’clock in the evening till four in the morning, wished he could produce it from “ an eternal teapot.” Last but not least, during the conflict recently waged in Egypt, the British troops were led on to victory on tea. If you read your newspapers, you will remember that when the final march on Tel-el-Kebir was made, each soldier was pro- vided with a quantity of ammunition, two days’ rations, and a water-bottle filled with tea. A few years ago those bottles would have been filled with rum, but Sir Garnet Wolseley is a wise man. He believes not in rum, but in tea. A good cup of tea can never be obtained from the cheap, inferior, adulterated teas which are sold at “a tremendous sacrifice,” and which it has been proved, consist in some cases of leaves which have been already used, dried and rolled into shape, or of tea dust which has been mixed with clay and other substances, and manipulated into the form of the leaf. True, there are genuine “clean” teas of full body, though not of very delicate flavour, to be had at a low price, but very cheap teas are not to be recommended. Of course, if people have accustomed themselves to drink beer as an accompaniment to raw onions and red herrings, they may rejoice in Saryune Congou also ; but we should scarcely say that they were experienced tea-drinkers. In this case, as in all others, a good article will command its market value, and if wc try to get it for less than it is worth, we 138 The Girl's Own Cookery Book. walk deliberately into a trap prepared for the ignorant and the unreasonable. What, then, are we to do ? We may be able to appre- ciate a cup of good tea when it is made, yet not be able to select it judiciously. Our course lies clear before us — we must purchase the tea of a respectable dealer who has a reputation to maintain, and who will not for his own sake supply us with an inferior or adulterated article. Given, then, the respectable dealer, what variety of tea should we ask him to supply us with ? This must depend on individual taste. Some people have a preference for one kind of tea only ; others believe that flavour and body are best obtained from a suitable mixture. I incline to the latter opinion ; moreover, I like to mix the varieties myself. To buy tea already mixed calls for the exercise of more trust in a very worthy class of the community than I possess. The finest green tea is the purest tea obtainable in this country, and it is also the sort most liable to adulteration. Green tea is scarcely ever used alone, and its use at all is much less frequent now than formerly. The usual proportion for a mixture of black and green tea is four or six parts of black to one of green tea. When taken strong, green tea is most injurious.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

It is very easy to make good tea if only people will take the trouble to attend to two or three little details concerning it. First, there is the tea itself. If this is not good of its kind, we may give up our attempts at once, for we shall never succeed in producing the fragrant, agreeable, mildly stimulating and cheering beverage which all Englishwomen love, and the majority of brain workers rely upon. For tea has had its triumphs, and “ has been honoured among beverages.” Hawthorne called it “an angel’s gift;” Miss Mitford said she could lie awake all night drinking it ; De Quincy, who used to drink it from eight o’clock in the evening till four in the morning, wished he could produce it from “ an eternal teapot.” Last but not least, during the conflict recently waged in Egypt, the British troops were led on to victory on tea. If you read your newspapers, you will remember that when the final march on Tel-el-Kebir was made, each soldier was provided with a quantity of ammunition, two days’ rations, and a water-bottle filled with tea. A few years ago those bottles would have been filled with rum, but Sir Garnet Wolseley is a wise man. He believes not in rum, but in tea. A good cup of tea can never be obtained from the cheap, inferior, adulterated teas which are sold at “a tremendous sacrifice,” and which it has been proved, consist in some cases of leaves which have been already used, dried and rolled into shape, or of tea dust which has been mixed with clay and other substances, and manipulated into the form of the leaf. True, there are genuine “clean” teas of full body, though not of very delicate flavour, to be had at a low price, but very cheap teas are not to be recommended. Of course, if people have accustomed themselves to drink beer as an accompaniment to raw onions and red herrings, they may rejoice in Souchong Congou also ; but we should scarcely say that they were experienced tea-drinkers. In this case, as in all others, a good article will command its market value, and if wc try to get it for less than it is worth, we 138 The Girl's Own Cookery Book. walk deliberately into a trap prepared for the ignorant and the unreasonable. What, then, are we to do ? We may be able to appreciate a cup of good tea when it is made, yet not be able to select it judiciously. Our course lies clear before us — we must purchase the tea of a respectable dealer who has a reputation to maintain, and who will not for his own sake supply us with an inferior or adulterated article. Given, then, the respectable dealer, what variety of tea should we ask him to supply us with ? This must depend on individual taste. Some people have a preference for one kind of tea only ; others believe that flavour and body are best obtained from a suitable mixture. I incline to the latter opinion ; moreover, I like to mix the varieties myself. To buy tea already mixed calls for the exercise of more trust in a very worthy class of the community than I possess. The finest green tea is the purest tea obtainable in this country, and it is also the sort most liable to adulteration. Green tea is scarcely ever used alone, and its use at all is much less frequent now than formerly. The usual proportion for a mixture of black and green tea is four or six parts of black to one of green tea. When taken strong, green tea is most injurious.

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