Chapter VI · The Drinking: Modern tea science — Tea has nine difficulties: the making, the judging, the vessels…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
The passage
“Tea has nine difficulties: the making, the judging, the vessels, the fire, the water, the roasting, the grinding, the brewing, and the drinking.”
Modern tea science
A modern tea-science reading of “Tea has nine difficulties: the making, the judging, the vessels…” 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.