Chapter IV · The Vessels: Terroir — Ladle it with a gourd into the bowls, so that…

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0

The passage

“Ladle it with a gourd into the bowls, so that the foam is evenly divided. The foam — the froth — is the flower of the soup.”

Terroir

“Ladle it with a gourd into the bowls, so that…” 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.