Page 83 - @ccess 2 Reader´s Book

or young duckweed just building in nascent waters, or even
a wispy cloud brushed across a clear blue sky. In his Odes to
Old Tea Leaves, Du Yu also describes tea froth as “… shiny as
freshly fallen snow and as bright as the sprouting grass of a
spring dawn.”

If there is a film of black on top of the water, then scoop it
out. Otherwise, it will destroy the taste of the tea. This first
11
boil of tea tastes the best, and the aroma lasts for a very long
12
time. One can save some of the first boil of tea for later, to
pacify crashing, splashing water and to cultivate the essence
13
of later boils. The first three bowls are indeed the best.
Unless one is extremely thirsty, the rest of the tea is not worth
drinking. In general, 200 ml of water can make five bowls.
One should drink them consecutively while they are still hot.
The heavier elements and tea dregs will sink to the bottom
of the bowl while the essence will float to the top. Therefore,
the tea should be drunk hot before the essence vaporizes.

14
It is not a good idea to drink too much. Moderation is the
virtue of tea. The liquor itself should also be frugal, meaning
it doesn’t have too strong a flavour. Therefore, learning the
proper amount of tea to add is essential. If you brew with
too much water, the tea becomes too thin. When you drink
half a bowl and find out it does not have much of a flavour,
imagine what it would have been like had you used even
more water with the same amount of tea powder!

11 Caused by tea dregs. The powder wasn’t as fine as modern matcha.
12 In this part Master Lu is not talking about the three stages of boiling the water, but
of the boils of tea. The tea could be re-boiled, though the first would obviously be
the best.
13 Adding this back into the tea the way one did with the water taken out in the
initial brew.
14 This is another place where the tea as medicine philosophy we are working so
hard to promote is peek-a-booing out through Master Lu’s writing. When tea is
taken as medicine, one needn’t drink too much.

82 Reader's Book