Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1492816
20 STiR coffee and tea | 2023 Issue 1 (February / March) I TERROIR n Japan's oldest book on tea, Kissa Yojoki, the 'Treatise on Tea Drinking for Health' written in 1193, its author, the monk Eisai, wrote, "Growing in the mountains and valleys, it contains the very spirit of the earth." Throughout the history of tea drinking in China and Japan, one persistent theme has been the deep connection between the leaf and the land that bore it. Tea from the same plant grown in different locations, even though these may be only a few hundred metres apart, as happens in the core area of Wuyishan in China's Fujian Province, tastes different because of terroir, the sense of place. The French term, most often applied to wine, encom- passes all of the physical and biological characteris- tics of a specific geography that interact with plant genetics and cultural practices of that place. This includes factors such as mesoclimate, microclimate, soil, altitude, drainage and aspect, further tempered by human management skills. It was the French who formalized this sense and taste of place in Burgundy, where for centuries Benedictine and Cistercian monks held vast tracts under vine and carefully monitored the differences. The Life of Tea: A Journey to the World's Finest Teas (book excerpt) This edition of STiR launches a new section, "Culture of Coffee and Tea," here featuring an excerpt from The Life of Tea, one of the most beautiful books ever published on the topic. This magisterial volume documents the living heritage of Camellia sinensis in a photographic panorama of the cultivation, craft, and savoring of tea in China, Japan, Taiwan, India, and Sri Lanka. Photographed by Michael Freeman and co-written with Timothy d'Offay, it won the Fortnum & Mason Food and Drink Awards Drink Book Award 2019. (Mitchell Beazley, London 2018). Available from bookshops and online. Tea grower Feng Yu Xiang runs Feng's High Mountain Organic Tea, a cooperative in Xianyushan, Qimen, China. Picking tea in Fuding, Fujian Province, renowned for the terroir of its white teas.