Chapter V · The Brewing: Making — When roasting the tea, beware of roasting over a windy…
Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
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.”
Making
Tea is made, not merely picked. The timing of the harvest and the precision of each step decide how much of the mountain survives in the cup.
Fixation, rolling, oxidation, and drying all push the leaf in different directions. A fine raw material can be lost by a careless hand.
Read the old processing sequence as a chain of decisions, not a list of museum objects.
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.