A THRIVING INDUSTRY.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 2714, 28 January 1892, Page 4

A THRIVING INDUSTRY.

THE EMPIRE TEA COMPANY

Amongst ithe Anglo-Saxon race 'tea is one of the prime necessities of jlife. The lore of it has strongly impregnated the blood of onr people, and arctic cold and torrid heat are alike powerless to lessen the likifig for it. But the popular taste has become very fastidious. It insists upon its favourite beverage being of approved flavour. Hence has arisen the practice of tea blending, which has been carried to such a pitch as to have attained almost the distinction of a fine art. No firm in this Colony have studied this art with more care and greater application than Messrs W. and G. Turnbull and Co., otherwise known as the Empire Tea Company. Unlike many of their competitors, they have been content to produce a moderately good article at a very low price, but while always paying due regard to proper economy, they have aimed at procuring the very finest and most fragrant of teas, and gaining for themselves the reputation of turning out the richest blends in the market. That they have accomplished their purpose is best proved by the fact that although they have 9 different brands of teas ranging in price from 2s to 3s a lb, the public manifest a strong predilection for the higher priced varieties. This is all the more gratifying proof of the high appreciation in which Messrs Turnbull and Co.’s blends are held by the general public, as tea blenders in other parts of the Colony assert that they find a difficulty in obtaining a large for any variety of tea but that which is retailed at 2s a lb. The tea business of this firm has so rapidly and steadily expanded that it now affords employment for 14 hands, and its operations occupy the whole of the top floor of their large warehouse in Customhouse quay. In fact, the firm have for some time been contemplating the expediency of erecting a building for this special department alone. Amongst the employees are two experienced tea blenders who served a long apprenticeship to the trade in London. All the latest and most improved appliances are used, and neither pain nor expense is spared to maintain the high repute which the Empire Company’s brands have gained. The very latest contrivance in use is a highly ingenious machine for teapacking, which Mr Nicholas Reid was fortunate enough to secure during his recent visit to Europe, and it is probably the only one of the kind in use throughout the whole of the Australasian group of colonies. It compresses the tea by a single movement into neat and symmetrical lead packages, which then are placed in the attractive wrappers so familiar to the public. The most scrupulous care is taken to ensure a high standard of quality for the various blends. No sample of tea is allowed to leave the warehouse without being subjected to frequent and severe tests. Those tests are applied right up to the time of packing, and any tea that is in the least degree “ off ” is promptly thrown out. In this way public confidence is both assured and justified. The Company’s various blends, and the prices at which they are sold, are as follows : —-Mikado (two varieties), 2s per lb; pure Ceylon, 2s per lb ; Empire, 2s 2d per lb ; Buffalo, 2s 4d per lb; Crescent, 2s 6d per ib; Elephant, 2s 8d per lb ; Kangra Valley, 2s lOd per lb ; Houdah (an Indian tea), 3s per lb ; Dragon (finest Ceylon), 3s per lb. Nearly all the Company’s teas are Indian and Ceylon.— N.Z. Times.