Chapter VII · The History: Modern tea science — Wang Meng of Jin loved tea, and pressed it on…

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The passage

“Wang Meng of Jin loved tea, and pressed it on every visitor; the officials dreaded it, and whenever they meant to call they would say, ‘Today we must suffer the water-calamity.’”

Modern tea science

A modern tea-science reading of “Wang Meng of Jin loved tea, and pressed it on…” 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.