fire, which finishes Green tea. In this case, it is plainly the
heating treatment which develops the faint flavor and odor of
Green tea, for no fermentation is allowed to begin, unless indeed
brief and unobserved action takes place within the compressed
balls.

In making an Oolong Black tea, which occupies an intermediate
position between Green tea and Black Souchongs and Congous, the
leaves are first exposed to the action of the air for a
considerable time, and in many cases, to the sun also. An
incipient fermentation may take place, although this is denied by
some. There is certainly a chemical change beyond the brief
preliminary drying of Green tea. During this period the leaves
(in China) are stirred and tossed by the hands. The effect, if
not the object, is to expose greater surfaces to the air, and to
increase oxidation. It is during this operation that the leaves
first begin to manifest characteristics of manufactured tea, in
the way of a fragrant tea odor which the green leaf did not
possess. The development of sweet odors in new hay, quite
different from those of green grass, and also the artificial
development of flavor in tobacco leaves, may be recalled in this
connection. This prolonged exposure to the air is termed
"withering," and the leaves become soft and flaccid, as they do
in the first artificial heating for Green tea. In withering, the
leaves lose about one quarter of their weight in moisture. The
leaves must not be bruised before the termination of this
treatment, or injurious chemical changes will begin.

The second operation with Black tea is the same rolling into
balls, twisting and squeezing, as in Green tea. Mr. Crole says