A NEW ALCOHOLIC DRINK FROM TEA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXIV, Issue 2978, 9 April 1870, Page 6

A NEW ALCOHOLI C DRINK FROM TEA.

At the last meeting of the Society of Arts, Dr Thudichum gave a lecture on " Wines ; their Origin, Nature, Analyses, and Uses." He concluded as follows : — " I must say a word about the long array of bottles you see before you, which contain a variety of new liquids. They were made at the instance of a friend of mine, Mr Adam Scott, who has been long connected with China. Some time ago there was a great depression in the tea trade. An enormous amount of tea waa accumulated in the London Bocks, and the merchants did not know what to do with it. I said I would try whether some drink could not be made from it; and Mr Scott sent me several varieties of tea, such as congou, orange-flavored pekoe, kaisow, oolong, and a variety, of other fine teas,. They were tried one alter the other. Decoctions were made, sugar was added, and a certain amount of yeast and fermentation began. By adding more or less of one or the other — more tea, more sugar, or different kinds of sugar— we were ultimately successful in producing what you see before you, six varieties of wine, which are open to inspection and taste. Nos. 3 and 4 are natural tea wine, with nothing added but sugar, and the yeas}; to ferment the tea, the samples before you being about a year old. There are two varieties, one being made from orange pekoe, and the other from congou, flavored with oolong. Each gallon contains the extract from |lb of tea. Nos. 3a. and 4s. have a little alcohol added, and whereas the natural wine contains 9 per cent, of alcohol, these contain about 11 per cent. This was done to suit the taste of some persons who thought the other was not strong enough. Then, agaiß, others said, " This is too dry ; it is a very good stomachic, but I like something sweeter." We, therefore added. 2 to ,4 per cent, more sugar, and 4 per cent more alcohol, and that gives you a wine which is 6 per cent, below strong sherry. Then I have made a different kind again in another manner. I have taken natural wine, which itself was worth nothing, and could not be drunk, because it was fermentescent, and mixed with that a certain quantity of tea, whereby the whole fermentability of the wine was at once destroyed ; then I added acid and alcohol up to 9 per cent., the acid being 15 per mjlle, and a little color, and the products of that process are Nos. 5 and 6. Then, last, I tried an experiment which I myself, consider the most successful of any. I made an effervescing wine in two ways. First in the soda water way, by pumping in carbonic acid ; and the second method was by putting tea liqueur into wine previously made effervescing, according to a scientific method. The tea liqueur being put in, it was allowed to deposit ; the deposit was disgorged according to the rules of the art, and you have on the table the product which I call effervescing tea par excellence. It is dry, but all these wines I have kept dry, according to the prevailing taste, which ia, I think, correct in this respect. Of course, if the experiment were carried out on a large scale, sugar could be added to any extent, to please the taste of the consumer. I maintain that as wines are still dear, and are getting dearer every year, and as they lack certain keeping qualities, particularly champagne, which cannot be sent, for example, to China or Japan, because it would ferment a second time, and as these tea wines are so unfermentable that if you even put yeast and sugar into them, and keep them at a temperature equal to that of the human body for six weeks, you will not get more than one bottle in a hundred to ferment, it is certainly useful to have an unfermentable effervescing wine which can be transported anywhere; and, considering the great use which effervescing wines are, and the great boon which, they would be considered by many persona abroad who are at present unable to obtain anything of the sort, the experiment is certainly worth trying. I shall be happy for anyone present to taste these wines. The tea makes them a good stomachic, and alcohol is present jn small quantity, the exhili* rating effect is unaccompanied by any evil consequences, while at the same time no one can drink half or even a quarter of a bottle without feeling unmistakeably that, in ordi- : nary phrase, he is ' the better for it.' "