Chapter II · The Implements: Modern tea science — The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
The passage
“The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made of stone; otherwise of locust or mulberry wood, half-buried in the ground so that it will not rock.”
Modern tea science
A modern tea-science reading of “The cheng base, also called tai or zhen, is made…” separates four layers: ecology, cultivar, processing, and brewing.
Soil drainage, light, temperature, and cultivar shape the amino acids, catechins, and aromatics in the leaf. Those compounds then meet water, heat, and time.
Science can explain why an old observation often works, but it does not make the observation universal. Context still matters.
Reading note
Read the passage once for the image, once for the judgment, and once for the practice it implies.
Practice
- Name one thing the passage asks you to notice.
- Compare it with a tea you know.
- Keep the question open.