Chapter VII · The History: Terroir — 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.’”

Terroir

“Wang Meng of Jin loved tea, and pressed it on…” opens the question of terroir: the same cultivar can taste different on a different slope, soil, altitude, or mist line.

The Classic of Tea ranks soils by drainage and minerality. Modern growers still begin with the same questions: water, roots, shade, and air.

When tasting, ask where the tea grew before asking how famous it is. Terroir is not a marketing word; it is a set of physical conditions.

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.