Chapter IV · The Vessels: Taste and body — For water, mountain spring is best, river next, well lowest…
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The passage
“For water, mountain spring is best, river next, well lowest. Of mountain springs, choose the milky fountains that seep from rocky pools; avoid rushing, churning torrents.”
Taste and body
The final test of any tea text is the body: warmth, texture, bitterness, sweetness, throat feeling, and whether you feel well afterwards.
The Classic of Tea is unusually practical here. It cares about what tea does to the drinker, not only what it symbolizes.
Taste comparatively: same tea, different water, vessel, temperature, and steep time. The differences teach more than adjectives.
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.