Chapter I · The Origin: Modern tea science — As for the character, it is sometimes written with the…

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

The passage

“As for the character, it is sometimes written with the grass radical, sometimes with the tree radical, and sometimes with both.”

Modern tea science

A modern tea-science reading of “As for the character, it is sometimes written with the…” separates four layers: ecology, cultivar, processing, and brewing.

Soil drainage, light, temperature, and cultivar shape the amino acids, catechins, and aromatics in the leaf. Those compounds then meet water, heat, and time.

Science can explain why an old observation often works, but it does not make the observation universal. Context still matters.

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.