Chapter VII · The History: Terroir — In the Search for the Supernatural: Xia Houkai died of…

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The passage

“In the Search for the Supernatural: Xia Houkai died of illness; his kinsman Gou Nu, who could see spirits, watched him come to fetch his horse and afflict his wife. Wearing a flat kerchief and single robe, he entered and sat on the great bed by the west wall where he had sat in life, and asked people for tea.”

Terroir

“In the Search for the Supernatural: Xia Houkai died of…” 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.