Life of a CHARSEE : Tea Trade in China

#TeaHistory

If you, like me, till now thought that the word #Charsee means a person addicted to #hemp ... ahem ... think again!

I hit upon a fascinating meaning of the word right from the pages of Tea Trade History between #Britain and #China.

--

China & Britain : #TeaTrade

To put it into a brief historical context the exotic and elite Chinese Tea arrived in Britain around 1645. It took about a 100 years for this tea to become a national obsession with the British.

In the 1770s Britain took 33% of the total tea exports from China, this share increased to 54% in 1781-1790, to 74% in 1791-1800, and reached 80% in 1801-1810.

From 1817-1833 a whopping 92.5% of all Chinese exports to Britain were just tea.

—

Charsees: #Western #TeaTasters

In this thriving trade come in the Charsees, professional tea tasters from the West based in China. Their job - to procure the best tea in town for the British janta in a highly competitive scenario - required an intense training of the pallet for 5-6 years:

“ … during the tea season my sole duty being to test and to taste the thousands of samples which then come pouring in. Sometimes I have to taste as many as 150 in a single morning and at the end of the month's duration my digestive and nervous functions become completely upset by the extra strain on them.”

--

What you see below is photograph of two western tea tasters, Charsees in China , 1840 courtesy professor #RobertGardella

Now, much as I tried, I have been unable to trace the origin of the word. But, I have managed to find a wonderful peek into their lives from a 1885 book, English Life in China by Major Henry Knollys.

Here is a juicy experience of what it felt like for a layperson to hang around a Charsee, the chai-wala (perhaps the hemp-wala also)!

Rewind, unwind and taste a bit of the life of the tea-tasters of yore.

--

<< Hanging Around a Charsee >>

“ It is a cardinal principle that a charsee, to be successful, can allow himself no second judging, but must make up his mind at one stroke on the spot. His first thoughts, like a woman's, will chiefly be valuable.

To proceed to actual business: a preliminary examination is held on the general aspect of each of the samples.

A small quantity is poured into the hand.

Its appearance should be’ neat' and 'level,' with small, even, tightly rolled #leaves, free from dust, small pieces of stick, and sweepings, while here and there should be visible little light tips called pekoe points, pieces of tea #blossom, which indicate that the plant has been stripped while the leaves were still in a tender state.

Then ensues a great deal of #sniffing, for a fragrant leaf will of course produce a fragrant infusion, whereas a sour smell indicates undue fermentation in the early stages of preparation, which will render the product comparatively valueless.

But the one test worth all the others put together is naturally the #infusion, and here the charsee seems absolutely absorbed in applying all his senses to this operation.

From each muster a small quantity- not more than good-sized pinches- are weighed out with chemical exactitude and placed in respective cups, which are filled up with water just boiling but not overboiled.

The cups are covered with the saucers, a five minutes' sand-glass is set running, and the infusion is left to draw.

Precisely as the last grain runs out, the charsee begins his tasting, and an exceedingly nasty process it proves.

He draws the liquid- of course milkless and sugarless--through his teeth like a horse drinking.

He rolls it about his mouth, gurgles, squelches, and finally cascades it out of his mouth into one of those beautiful vases I have already mentioned, and which I should designate by the homely title of spittoon, though it is sought to

extenuate the nastiness of their purpose by the classical expression of ‘cuspidores.' [a large bowl, often of metal, serving as a receptacle for spit, especially from chewing tobacco: in wide use during the 19th and early 20th centuries ]

Then comes the first verdict, or weeding out rejected samples.

If you are penetrated with the conceit of ignorance, you will perhaps hazard an expression of approval of one sample which possibly corresponds to English three-shilling-tea, and will slight another which is possibly four-shilling-tea.

The charsee becomes quite vexed with what he suspects must be your obstinacy or stupidity.’ Try again,' and once more you gargle and spit, and if you be honest you will resolutely declare that for your part you cannot detect a pin's difference between the two--but it is more probable that to dispose of the tiresome reproaches you will truckle and fib. “

—

PS: For those of you who can find the etymology of the word, Charsee … from me it’s an open invitation for tea Mad Hatter style for ... “Its always tea time!”