Chapter V · The Brewing: Plain reading — When roasting the tea, beware of roasting over a windy…
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The passage
“When roasting the tea, beware of roasting over a windy ash-fire, where leaping flames make the heat uneven. Hold it near the fire and turn it again and again, until bumps rise like toad-backs, then move it five inches from the fire.”
Plain reading
In plain English: “When roasting the tea, beware of roasting over a windy ash-fire, where leaping flames make the heat uneven. Hold it near the fire and turn it again and again, until bumps rise like toad-backs, then move it five inches from the fire.”
The point is not to turn the passage into a modern slogan. It is to recover the judgment behind it: what counts as good tea, and why.
For a modern reader, the most useful move is to turn the passage into a short checklist for buying, making, or tasting tea.
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.