A dissertation upon tea, explaining its nature and properties by many new experiments and demonstrating from philosophical principles, the various effects it has on different constitutions. To which is added the natural history of tea ... Also a discourse on the virtues of sage and water / By Thomas Short.

  • Short, Thomas, 1690?-1772.
Date:
1730
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dissertation upon tea, explaining its nature and properties by many new experiments and demonstrating from philosophical principles, the various effects it has on different constitutions. To which is added the natural history of tea ... Also a discourse on the virtues of sage and water / By Thomas Short. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which raifed its Price in France to 200 Livres per Pound, till Coffee and Chocolate were more generally us’d, which reduc’d both the Price and Efteem of the former r. Favernier fays, the King and Nobility of Fun quin prefer the Flower of Fea as mod wholefome and pleafmr, which makes it dearer and more valuable ; for, fays he, as much of this Liquor as will fill one of our ordinary Beer-Glaffes is there worth a French Crown. But Conorius, who liv’d feveral Years :inffapan, allures us, that the Flowers are of no- Efteem, the main Virtue being lodged in the Leaf: And what led Faver- nier, and feveral others into this Miftake,was, that the (mall Leaves which are fir ft pluck’d, when they are not above forty eight or fifty Hours old, arc called the Flower or Prince of Fea, being moft valu’d and fold at an extravagant Rate, viz. from 45 to 140 Crowns per Pound. V/e have only two Sorts imported to us, viz. Green and Bohea • the Europeans con traded their firft Acquaintance with, and moftly ufed the Green s: Then Bohea took place of it, probably becaufe the Chinefe, if they are weak, chiefly confine themfelves to this Kind, and afcribe to it a Angular Virtue of Healing and preventing Difeafes,. and applaud it as the Baham of Life to the human Machine •, blit we find, generally fpeak- ing, that Green Fea anfwers our Purpofes better, and is therefore chiefly ufed by the Quality, which has reduced the Price of Bohea] and raifed this. Of Bohea, called by the Chinefe Voui, or Bui, we have the following Sorts imported, viz. 1. Pekoe, which has the mod pleafant and delicate Flavour of all this firft Clafs; its Leaf is very final! and black, and has^ many final! white Flowers mix’d with it; its Liquor is not of fo deep a Tincture as the reft, and creams brifkly when pour’d out; the Water mud ftand on it a confiderable Time to draw out its Virtues, and ’twill bear four or five fundry Waters. The clofer Connection, or Cohefion of its Principles, renders it more Balfamic, and alfo hereby it grows better by keeping, which is the Reverfe of Green Fea. The Price of this at prefent is 15 s. per Pound with us. 2. Congo, which has a larger Leaf,s and is of a deeper brown Colour than the former; this will bear five Waters, but then they muft not ftand long upon it, for unlels the Water is prefently pour’d off, the whole Strength of the Fea will be drawn out at once. Hence, if you mix Pekoe and Congo, you fhall have an ~ admirable fine Fea; you have all the Goodnefs of the laft in the firft two Waters, and of the firft in the laft two or three, but even then the Water r SeePomet9s Hiftorv of Drugs, p. 84. bers fays in his Cyclopoedla, Tom, 2. the s See Append, to fichroder’s Pharm. p. 8. Dutch have but lately introduced, it into.,