Tea: Its History and Mystery
Joseph M. Walsh
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Utility, not originality, has been aimed at in the compilation of this work. The obstacles and difficulties its author had met with in his endeavors to learn something of the article he was commissioned to sell when he first entered the Tea trade, the almost total lack of knowledge displayed by the average dealer in the commodity, allied to the numerous inquiries for a work containing “all about tea,” first prompted the undertaking.
The material was collated at intervals, in a fragmentary manner, covering a period of over twenty years, and arranged amid the many interruptions incident to an active business life, subjected to constant revisions, repeated prunings and innumerable corrections, due mainly to the varying statements and conflicting opinions of admitted authorities in every branch of the subject. Still, as careful and judicious an arrangement of the data has been given as possible, a faithful effort being made to omit nothing that may prove useful, instructive or profitable to the expert, the dealer or general reader.
Aware that many facts have been omitted, and many errors committed in its preparation, he still trusts that the pains he has taken to avoid both have not been in vain, that the former may be few, and the latter of no great importance. The work was compiled under impulse, not under inducement, a single line not being intended originally for the market, and is now being published solely for the benefit of those “whom it may concern.”
Philadelphia, December, 1892. - Summary by From the Preface (8 hr 43 min)
Chapters
Prefatory | 2:17 | Read by Will Shakespeare |
Early History | 45:39 | Read by Will Shakespeare |
Geographical Distribution | 15:41 | Read by Will Shakespeare |
Botanical Characteristics and Form | 21:20 | Read by Rapunzelina |
Cultivation and Preparation | 36:35 | Read by Will Shakespeare |
Classification and Description part 1 | 41:58 | Read by Cbteddy |
Classification and Description part 2 | 38:51 | Read by Cbteddy |
Classification and Description part 3 | 37:47 | Read by Cbteddy |
Adulteration and Detection | 46:44 | Read by Verla Viera |
Testing, Blending and Preparing part 1 | 43:04 | Read by Linda Johnson |
Testing, Blending and Preparing part 2 | 1:09:45 | Read by Linda Johnson |
Chemical, Medical and Dietical Properties | 52:28 | Read by Cbteddy |
World’s Production and Consumption | 39:45 | Read by George Banfield |
Tea Culture, a Probable American Industry | 31:26 | Read by marisad6 |