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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Clinton News Record, 1934-08-09, Page 7"TllTJR•S., AUG. 9, 1934 THE CLINTON NEWS -RECORD PAGE7 ' ANCE PEK P r. a'O/'�i �, ¶1 "Fresh From the Gardens" Of Interest to Women Mr. H. C. Kenney: Tea Taster 'Arthur Lowe in The New Outlook There is a description in one of '_H• G. Wells' storiesof an n invalid out oi hio -sat, day after day, bedroom window. The world, as far as he was concerned, began with a ended and store'on the left tobacco with a semi-detached villa, just vis- ible on the right. ass d ossathd frs world but seen and women p he never thought of them as men and. women. To him they were the beings of a moment, without past or future, created jest for this one appearance Leapon his stage. e' Tst of us are guilty, in varying de- gree, et It sounded too simple. I have prac- gree, of a similar egotism. Too oftentised tea. drinking a lot myself, but the world is only a hack -even forfour I couldn't get a job at it. I couldn't own lived and we think even of the tell Soochong from Syhlet. people nearest to us merely as a sup -„How d"you ., moan—practice?" 1 porting cast The others, vague and asked. �' 5 method with which most of us are shadowy, we feel were created by.amethod For one cup, tea s s are ;beneficial stage director for our diver- "Egret of all X, Would get hold of aAt ;litferent"ed in a balance so that the amount of sion and they exist only in those brief two teas that were -vii11:li ed used is equal to a lime, Thus too ;.,moments when we choose to be con- said Mr. Kenney, "and I would learn to placed in a porcelain cup, is tea a�fSusT ,9f them, t6 distinguish 0111 from' the other by water is poured on it and it is minutes. g ell tase and apPeatanee. 'When 1. ed o infuse for exactly six mt ]Because of this egotisid Meet of us "could, pick out those •to . the end of t ex 256 Cooping six cups of brew were ready on the desk. Mr. Kenney didn't taste them, he just sniffed at each and arranged them in a certain order—one, two, three," four, five and six. "There .yew are," he said. "Six was grown near Darjeeling at seven thousand feet or thereabouts, five is a Nilgiri--a very nice tea grown at about five thousand feet, four is a Travancore, altitude about the same, three's from Assam, two's from Cach- ar and this one here is .a Syhlet, grown just above sea level. We wouldn't handle it," he added. The assistant checked the finding with a sheet giving the plantations from which the samples had come. They were correct. lain - The best teas, Mr. Kenney explain- ed, are grown at a high altitude; the poor teas come front districts' just a- bove sea level. The higher up a tea is grown the more essentialoil its leaves contain and this can be detect- ed from the taste. I asked Mr. Kenney to mix up the six cups again so that I 'could try my luck. I sniffed, and it seemed to me that I detected one stronger than the others :which seemed vaguely reminiscent of new -mown hay. "Darjeeling," I 'feet" triumphantly. "seven thousand feet." Mr. Kenney shook his head sadly. "It's the one we wouldn't handle," he corrected. "A poor tea — very poor." Tasting, as far as the tea -taster is concerned, is really n check on his other 'senses. The faint aroma of a tea is usually a sufficient indiection of its origin and value, but in order to "be doubly sure every sample is tasted. The preparation of tea for tasting is done with fine care not in the slap -dash teaspoonful to a cup one thing tea merchants must always guard against, for nothing will spoil the flavor of .tea so quickly. Some- times it happens•that when a tea is being shipped', the pipes in the hold of the boat tart sweating, and in consequence the tea loses some of its flavor. We must be able to detect that." "But surely," I said, "tea is packed in lead -lined` chests." He nodded.• "But some of the hu- midity, gets through." "And you spot it from the taste?" Again. he nodded. "Surely. How else should we be able to claim a- gainst the shipping company?" Somehow that staggered me .that you should be able to claim damages because an elusive quality like taste had not bleen correctly delivered. I had a mental picture of a hard-boiled claims" agent trying to calculate the difference in value between, say, the smell of new-mtown hay and the smell of new -mown hay plus the smell of flowers, plus a faint suggestion of wisteria. "They take our word for it," Mr. Kenney said. "Usually tea like that is worthless." Although moisture is so destructive to the flavor of tea, frost is consid- ered a taster rc an re- cognize 1 earn and blessing g ere d "weather- ed" tea that has been west ed" almost as readily as he can de- termine , the altitude at which it was grown. Some of the finest teas grown at a high altitude and nipped by frost will fetch as much as three dollars a pound on the London mar- ket. "What is the difference between a weathered tea and one that isn't?" I asked Mr. Kenney. For answer he brewed a cup from leaves which bad been touched by frost. There was a faint, pleasing aroma about it and it tasted—I can think of no other word—provocative. With each sip I somehow became conscious of a taste that never quite materialized: a new felicity, promis- ed but unfulfilled. I knew it was dif- ferent from ordinary tea, but the dif- ference was ,to subtle for me to ev- aluate. "D'you get it?" Mr. Kenney asked. There was a beautific expression on his face as if he were sharing with red a new and unplumbed joy. I couldn't disapopiet him. I closed my eyes and sighed,deeply. There wag no need for words. He understood. But although he may smoke thore. is one thing a tea -taster must not do, and that is, catch cold. A cold is as devastating to , tea -taster as house- maid's knee is to a rugby player. One sneeze and he may consider himself benched for a month. The blending of green tea den -rends an entirety different set of taste val- ues on the part of the taster. In order to understand what green tea is, it is necessary to give a word of explanation regarding the production• and processing of tea generally. The to row s wildstate, g tea -plant, hi its a height of twenty feet or over, but the planter by scientific pruning" keeps it down' to a height of three feet. From two to four years must elapse before the young shrub is fit for plucking, the longer period ap- plying plying to higher altitudes. Once plant has matured it is regularly plucked week by week for a year, or perhaps two. At the end of that' time the plant , begins to languish and it is accorded drastic treatment; every branch is loped' off and within• a few weeks new branches appear and it is ready for another's year's con- stant plucking.. After the leaves have been plucked they are laid'. out on bamboo shelves to wither. This process requires several hours and af- ter it is done: - the leaves are put through rolling machines which liber Who pushed a pen, ate the juices secreted:' in • the cells 1 Now, wielded lonely.hammer,rand sorer • of the leaf. After the leaf has been rolled` it it taken to the fermentiisg tables, where it spread out in a long bed and covered with thin strips of 'cotton which have been soaked in sold war ter. It is this process of fermenta- tion which determines that the finish- ed product will' be black tea. Wiieen green tea is to be manufactured e leaf is withered and dried without n. • do ern, e uta f (given to a novice the difference in taste between green and black tea is Very noticeable. The liquor of green tea looks not unlike cabbage water— although Mr, 'Kenney would describe its it as: a pale,,transculent jade and aroma suggests spinach,' but that be prejudice. The Chinese, who may are the main producers of green tea, use the infused leaves for a salad. ce •Cerbain peculiarities of fragrance a which would seem pernicious black tea drinker are considered ex- actly the thing by the green tea con- noisseur. nogsseur.: These pale, emaciated, ,dyspeptic, soured by his cups, but Mr. Kenney gave the Be to my expecations. He isn't pale, he isn't emaciated, he isn't dys- peptic. "What would you like to know?" he asked. "Where am 1 to begin " u Isuggested. beginning," t At the g "Tell me how you became a tea -tast- er." "That's easy." He put down the soup spoon and waved me to a chair. "I began here as an office boy twen- ty-two years ago. After a while I started tasting tea and,then it was just a matter of practice." day," he said. "hour hundred some- DUNGANNON Matthew Shackle_., hours; times if we're busy." ton of R. R. Noe 1, Dungannon, has God has given wisdom unto' ale the .. fi'owers. a sow of which he is very proud. Ing' Here I "But surely," I said, "you're taste February of last year she gave berth must -get blunted. At the end of a toa litter of 12 pigs t I busy day I'm surprised you can tell tea :from coffee." 'l Ie shook his head. • "The more I' sample the keener my taste seems to get." "'But you must be sick of tea'—" And at that precise moment a sten- ographer interrupted.us. She was carrying a tray laden with thineslic- ed bread and buten, with cake2,. with tea. "We always have tea in the after- noon," Mr. Kenney said. "You'll jbin us? Good. Cream Sugar'?' sit in silence.: here P. sit alone, . weighing' a o- de of 211 pounds. Oh the following - 13th 0! July she had another litter of 11, weighing' 205' pound's. In June'• of` tin's year she again had a litter. 2 little ones This time there were 1 weighing on the average tile' same. as. tile former titterer. teas every in andso "That seems easy,” I said. "I can see how you would recognize one tea from another, but what is your stan- dard of taste. What makes a good tea good and a bad tea bad." At six minutes i is amined by the notes the color of the leaves, their appearance and the color of the brew. Usually he can distinguish one plantation from another by these small points. With g •good tea the leaves take on a coppery sheen after they have been infused and the liquor is clear and a- bout the shade of tawny amber. Strong tea is anathema to the con- noisseur, for then lie loses those deli- cate fragrances which distinguish the good from the bad. "Why should' it be necessary to keep a staff of tasters ?" I asked Mr. Kenney. "Couldn't you draw your teas always from the same districts and thus standardize a blend." "We do standardize our blends," he said, "but it can't be done by drawing teas from the same plantations. Sometimes it is impossible to get the a from f require • tea we of ntit quantity particular district, then we have to substitute something else. And the quality of crops, even from the same plantation, varies from month to month. The only way We can main- tain a fixed standard es by so blend= ing the teas we receive that they al- ways taste." • dttC e a certain WA S produce Y On his 'desk was a tin containing a popular brand of blended tea. He pointed to it. "That's one of our yardsticks," he said. "Vire must match that blend. in taste, year after year, although the teas, that comprise it are drawn from twenty different districts and are constantly cbat g- t` n o£ one• plantation know very little about the parts der f would olid another, on " teeter, who fellow actors play:' There was a =man you sat alongside in the street car, today, for example. Let's pre. tend it was Mr. Kenney -Mr. H. C. Kenney: You glanced at him as you sat down anb said to yourself--"It'm, wonder what he does? Works in an office, I guess." Then you forgot Mr. Kenney and flipped over to page five, column two. You were right. Mr. Kenney does work in an office, but it is not the sort of office which you are accuse 'toned. It contains, not typewriters, and adding machines, and ledgers, but teapots and teacups --+hundreds and hundreds of teacups. For Mr. Kenney is e tea -taster. When I sought him out as one of • a dozen players having unknown but interesting. parts he was busily at work sipping tea. On the desk in or tw'ent front of him: there wereY thirty cups of it and he was going from one to the other with a soup spoon, tasting a mouthful from each. !Alongside hien was the mightiest cus- pidor for ever set eyes o on 1orIh have p d tea -tasters don't swallow. I had expected to find somebody A. dreamy look came into his eyes —such a look as a man gets when he recalls a perfect symphony, perfectly executed. "A geed tea," he said, al- most reverently, "say a tea from Dooars, grown at an altitude of seven thousand feet and touched by frost, tastes something like flowers in new mown hay. That's a poor si,nile very poor but it's the nearest I can get. A certain eragranee ou understand. Deli-, an actual taste, y Cate" Underneath the 'cypress,: old and stately grown;, tet: the world go - wandering, seek its pleasure far, I cam find contentment where resew are: —Arthur Leslie Paterson; lir C!iam- lier"s, Journal'::, PRAYER FOR AN' OL'D' GARDENEW "Lord God of Gardens, if yew please, Allow old Reuben -Pace hie -ease: The -lawns are swept, the• apples stir. ed,' New beds are made, but one; C Lord He wishes for himself to keep And 'lee there fir unbroken sleep. "For eighty years he's risen early. To tend the things he'd' Ioved so dearly; . Spring, Summer, Autumn; Winter, never• Escaped an eye and hand -so clever With plants there' in the potting•siied: But now he wants to lie a -bed. " Tin tired,' he said, 'and plants keep growing, ,And proper gardeners must keep hoe- ing; oe- in ; g or old' My back aches awful; my Po knees Give way beneath me. So, Lord; please, Allow old Reuben Pace to steep Blind to the weeds that o'er Bine creep."" —Cecil' Roberts, hi Gone Rustic On Thursday, Aug. 80th, the woe � men's five -mile Marathon will be held at the Canadian National Exhi- bitibn: The open, event foremen. and'. women will be livid the' day' before; August 2911:: THIS MODEST CORNER IS, DED, ', ATED TO T13 POETS Yo Songs—Sometimes � Will Sing e nes — and Ins Airing' Here They Gay, . Sometimes Sad But Always Helpful hair THE MUSIC OF 1J I the •m eyes Y make your Y 't', ma F ih Y the n And g A d the Our lives are songs. God writes psaltery:.' words, Lady, the world'. is: old'- Love "still And we set them to music at plea -is young. sure. Let us take hand; ere the swift` me, The song may be glad, or sweet, or ment-ende sad My heart is bull a lamp to light: As we choose to fashibir the.mea- your way, sure. My• song your counsellor, my lever We must write the music, whatever your -friend;' the song, Your soul the shrine whereat' I, Whatever its rhyme or metre, kneel and' prays. Lady, the world' grows old. Let tut And if it is sad we can make it geedbe young• And if sweet we cora make -it sweet-• -- T!iomas•Buru£tr er. —,Author Unknown• * * * I "You mean you can actually tell by the taste at what altitude a tea ,; was grown. "But certainly --within a thousand. feet, anyway." Perhaps I looked :incredulous, but anyhow Mr. Kenney galled an assis- tant and asked him to prepare six cups of tea, each from a different obtained (plantation. The assistant ob tai the necessary samples and soon the. iticalth, Semite 4 OF o A ( mg. Substitu to (6attabittlt dtrttt lkosiniI1il� • for another may involve changes in EARTH BORN' THE RIVER -BEND• eye Do you think God will make us at - How like a pensive The rock-acid-oak-luowed waters lie! When wake up, in Heaven— Shallow once, they dug the teeth ivaed All the queer little earth -fish Of uncompromising youth, things Roaring, foaming with die, shock, That are sacred" as archangel's songs Into the girdling rock. Or the stars that: are seven? Though they might rise up in the Our books, our green china- with spring; pos!C5;.. Remembering: My white wedding -gown with its Deeper the strength is of their quiet roses, Than of their ancient riot. The candles we light ht, Little can ruffle them now; In ' wee house did se elockat g with'' its wise, Past are the stormy days; and how Contentedly deep they lie friendly. face, Reflecting rock and' oak and' sky.And my mother's old lace--• ,Albert Edmund' Trembly, in Voices. o you tliitik Love can ever forget? * * * Yes, count me a lover of Earth Vl"ith its tears or its mitth; NATURE'S' COMFORTERS Its wine that is bitter or bread that' What though my plodding pen may it sweet— fail, With the pink apple trees and thee And all my lines seem poor, and brown honey bees: pale?' Witit its far purple lands, I know what's iii my heart to say, And the warm, golden sands—+ allowed h : love And that gllumihes• all my day; And its queer little And' in the wood the tall pines form things An audience steadfast and' warm; That are as sacred as archangel's And' as my halting measures rise wings The breezes answer with their sighs; Or•the stars that•, are seven!' The birds make answer to mysong Do, you think God' will make us for - The get st • m g> .' far f10 note is Despite And in the hills an echo free When we wake up in Heaven Repeats my measures after me! - laDu se Morey ktawman. —John• Kendrick Bangs, in "The* * * Foothill§ of •Parnassus."' * * * A HOME' $AS BEH!' S What is a. home? A guarded' space all the pensioned men, Wherein- a few, tniftdely blest, God' pity Shall sit. together, face so face, The superannuated men, And bask and purr, and be at rest,?' The men who never will' a> in' Dim ingtge from far Beery caught, Be as they were before; • Fair- type of fairer things to be-, The unit was and the has-been man, The true. home rises in our thought Mechanical and cleric men Aa beacon for all men' to see. THE LAST .tld• THESE' Lord in tierCourts Are seats so green bestowed As there, resorts Along the dusty road' A eavalsade—King, Bishop; Knight am: "Judge; And though I tor!! behind and meat'.-, ly trudge Let me too, lie upon that. pleasant sward For I' em weary, Lord. Christ;, at Thy beard Are wines and 'dishes drest, That•do afford' •Contentment to the Gest; And' though with poverty my bed' hath been - These many years, aril' my refresh. ment leak, With plenty now at fast my soul ace quaint. Dear Master, for I faint, But t hrough the grille, "Where is thy robe?" said Ile!' ' "Wouldst at thy fat Yet shirk civility • "My robe alas! There was a' little child - That shitered by- the rear—Swiftly- God smiled. and "I was that Child, said: He, rasathe ' ed pin; "Dear friend, enter thou in!"" —Sir Arthur Quilies-Coulteee 11' i the quantities of half' a dozen of the and Life Insurance Companies in Canada.other teas used" Edited by -Think of it, dear reader. You have T FLEIfING. M.D., Associate Secretary probably been using that' tea for ten GRANT have years, maybe and in that • F' DIRT es are not dangerous sinless theytime the sources twenty, supply,thhat PECK O been soiled, while they were in use, than ed thousands of. dines, but that which''aequies by secretions from the body The g hia the y • a health sense, is theme indefinable property of taste has re - peck old'p a dirt dish, m .niained' as .constant as a ,twelve -inch teed in the idea that wed must eat lay spoon, or fork, which has been ruler peck of dirt before we does not fit glass, into. contact with the saliva. If this doesn't strike you as being into our. present practices of living. Saliva is always potentially dangerems . .race the statement percentage of particularly marvellous the* of was is e, howe ri re the thee because such a high p o f ;something momar eleusite than taste - drip however. Before through 'think in some. simple little job e- . water was g fife and therinfections t our inodes tcenon l0 little oa cline when drmking of milk gam entrance to mixing up a color. g •clea given to the keeping isn't a, up of .Pinion: you can see r attention devoted tsd to the our is mouths, beings and toe the n onclusion• right or not. And see r 'whether cleans o , fruits and sae- This the g whether. g. -thorough :washing of f'important dirt is that tubes: of t _ if, u were twenty articu- neatablsl that were to be eaten raw, that:only p paint and eagiven o match a p hearty everyone consumed acousin- which ° reminded that we ate bodies, eare p i shade of orange Iain inclined Cto erable e more a than think you would find the ;job diiii- ml of v e one kind dirt dirt serioa of oonlylwmena menace any aYou would certainly afind • Thele isclip'. one. a health peau'. le view; clean and kind that. thec difficult if you had keep on r dirt" is the might kind of dirt lies in thedisease ome in it eels after we on darty dirt. Clean ht which may have found matching the shade, w dust, or other waste in whattwe`ittut You cannot eat a peck of this kind natural state. ,Di Y The.' smallest a� with basic colors that were,continu> dirt' bee as its or filthy, and, at of dirt in safetyall, chane col e tim dirty, re dangerous. Disease germs v is by no means per. •dirt be exons when. it is mounts a d The - analogy 'co same. time, or aoiand many thousands g. secretions aro tnieroscopgc, feet,. but at least it serves to. indi- from the humane soiled alby The of them can starvive, without• crowd- cote how delicate are a taster's ipnob from the animal bbody ySemm ing, on the Bead of a pin. Fortuna'. is .that body side, for the forces Iems. And it most be remembered season fort away body any ly, time is on our s ,ire that he does hot with things he . peculiarities m ions arger whichm are and light gradually destroy y, lot deale es colors; p tresent in 'of drying leave easily regpgii' b disease germs P e- these disease germs •after they deals with nizh intangibles rs the' be appraised .by the taster m sit e .adirtl wit seer y eon so as d so '.lies g in whose warm, moist and, to the fact that he may be a black Once only shines the mellow, m the body, art with which the body flourished. smell of flowers in new -mown hay fair, tions impregnate the d dark inte*cor they have f In addition to blending, the taster drinker himself:•• tea drip e 'n contact •o concerning Health, ad- bo to detect whether incam- Ilow many cups of tea a day do' One speck" of Time to Love's Ete o icy con, d o nth- Quest: s l As must b d m �" I asked Mr Iieney. mty Their day of usefulness is done, Net that they've lost; the skill' they. won, But just because they were begun Too many years before; Arms just as strong and brains keen, Discateled like a worn machine, With naught to do but sit and dream Of happy days of yore. • R. J. Dunsmore. Ont. as to Thom a. > S s FIRES' Since our forgotten fathers learnt,. tea Beet -et , The first. strange see I r many a. changeful fashion The fires of men have burnt; lee" dim and- traeltl'ess forest, On plain and' mountain height, The fears that haunt the darkness; Have fled their fitful light; , From. high and holy altars The sacrificial flame Has lifted wreaths of incense To gods we may not name; Oh hero -haunted headlands Tho beacon -fires of old Have cried their stormy message Of battles brave and' bold. Its: lamps burn freely in the night; its fire -glows, all unhidden, shed Their cheering and abounding light ion homeless folk uncomforted. Each sweet and secret thing within Gives out a fragrance on the air— A thankful breath sent forth to wits A little smile from others' care. So the old. miracle aneve Is wrought on earth and proven good, a few tinned for , Pis apportioned ' And. cram pP God -blessed, suffice a multitude. --Susan Coolidge. 1 NIGUT-PIECE Lady, the world is old, •and we are young. The world is old tonight and full 'of tears And tumbled dreams, and all its songs are sung, And echoes rise no more from the ;tombed years. Lady, the world is old, but we are. young., i n ea- tt. The term "dirt" is also use i Canadian Medica you,taste. lgq College Street, 'Lloron- ing. shipments have been damage • vat's• We speak of "dirty dishes" dressed to the Ca. 1 transit: ' r "About two hundred on an average . On an the star's sa light your ce only c •weC cscxibe,dishes-whichhave been h- tetter.inbe answered personally by "Moisture," said NIt• Kenney, "is �,..� •r,•••', ; to dE :though there is nothing on them use, a' ,remnants of food:.. Such dish- letter.. � ''"' .'"' `gat;.the• j :rye..: iuJe:}:eet:.; i. t think of fires feeding, The soul and body's need, Through unrecorded aeons Ofpassing race and creed, And smile at times to wonder What some old fiery ghost Would think if he should visit r. 1A: modern weiner roast; And see, in summer playlande, The weird antics done 11 In offering marshmallows To laughing gods of fun. Ad'vaue ROSBS Roses in the garden, crimson, yellow, white, surely as an old dream, Gpd's delight; Smiling in the sunshine, dreaming in the gleam, Linking with their sweetness every thought of home. Softerthana moth flits, 'round the dial's face Creeps the stealthy shadow in this quiet place, Roses cannot read, yet they know the eli\eved - ee, onto ATI rin'fbOuios n 1a00ts•cb, 0p? eshe ,g,ib bob °iltm ,1 e_• na •pvSit. est, ilie, . a}T iii 0 ant bcteS, sumlzotlieTth er YdiaShpeet S00 Yn BubS1:17a:\ Qm a{ t00Totiusns ISa ilia 1� AgP:'t . ,yrto ¢tsb'i0 rale. eW;eatbab.; ca 2 0 oaetYa' .�pde. tsameate. 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