Chapter I · The Origin: Terroir — 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.”

Terroir

“As for the character, it is sometimes written with the…” 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.