“Nevertheless, there is still good and pure Tea produced in China, and merchants in London who import it in an unadulterated condition, albeit a very large per centage of the 188,000,000 lbs. annually consumed in Great Britain is spurious. One mercantile Firm in particular have gained a wide and well-deserved reputation for the purity and excellent character of their importations. I refer with pleasure to Messrs. Horniman and Co., London, who for nearly forty years have assiduously laboured to supply the public with both green and black Tea, free from all mineral facing powder. As what passes through the Wormwood-street Warehouses to their Agents all over the country is subjected to no deteriorating and deleterious manipulation in China, its perfect purity can implicitly be relied upon. The Chinese letter which accompanied the first shipment, by Messrs. Horniman, of Tea into England, is quite original and unique.”
“The Flourishing Farm.--This is truly the very best Tea, prepared with additional labour and free from colouring matter. The educated (or experienced) merchant, who is competent to consider it, will please to take notice of its clear and genuine quality. We are honoured by your good orders, and shall proceed at once to the packing.”
The testimony afforded by several eminent analytical authorities in favour of Messrs. Horniman’s importations is so satisfactory that nothing further can well be desired. The earliest of those documents is from Dr. Andrew Ure, F.R.S., Professor of Chemistry, who declares that upon chemical and microscopic examination of the samples taken from the bonded warehouses, he “found them (both black and green) to be perfectly free from all extraneous colouring matter, and in every respect genuine Tea.”
Professor Ure further observes:--“The characteristic appearance of your green Tea, namely the dull olive hue, is unmistakably different to the bright blue tint of the ordinary green Teas of commerce, which is artificially imparted. This particular feature offers a perfect safeguard for the purity of the Tea, in contrast with such sophisticated Teas as I have sometimes been called upon to examine professionally for the Honourable Board of Excise, and which were coated with various powders that rendered them more or less unwholesome for use as an alimentary beverage.”