Chapter I · The Origin: Taste and body — Tea is a fine and noble tree of the South…

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The passage

“Tea is a fine and noble tree of the South. It may stand one or two feet tall, or reach many dozens of feet. In the mountain gorges of Bashan, there are trees so thick that two men can barely encircle them; one must cut the boughs and pick the leaves from below.”

Taste and body

The final test of any tea text is the body: warmth, texture, bitterness, sweetness, throat feeling, and whether you feel well afterwards.

The Classic of Tea is unusually practical here. It cares about what tea does to the drinker, not only what it symbolizes.

Taste comparatively: same tea, different water, vessel, temperature, and steep time. The differences teach more than adjectives.

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.