HOW TO DRINK TEA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 24 September 1913, Page 3

HOW TO DRINK TEA.

Britain drink's 1 more tea than any country, but Japanese visitors to London, Avho are arriving in larger numbers than ever, are sadly disappoint;ed"with what tliey, call "the insipid ■beverage',' that is made there. Mr ,K. Kishi, Chancellor, of the Japanese Embassy hi London, explains why his countrymen find English tea less palatable. "In Japan we take more pains to (Main the most delicate flavour possible," he says. "In brewing "the finest' green tea (the we boil the water,. but we do not pour ii on the _ tea until, it is almost lukewarm. " We never drink this tea hot. We let it infuse for two ojr three minutes in an open bowl. We pour tb.9 beverage into small cups and drink slowly, so that we taste to the full the ' exquisite ffavour. That is impossible if you take large gulps with your fdod. The young leaves of the plant only are taken, and in many houses the tea is kept in air-tight canisters with double covers, sometimes for more than a year. Deleterious moisture then never gets into it. On the inferior qualities of tea (baucha) made from the older we poifl" hot water, and drink it hot in larger quantities, as you do in' England. The black tea the English drink is often taken in Japanj by way of a change, but always with' sugar and milk.'- I don't understand how people can drink it without.""