The taste of tea: Material, embodied knowledge and environmental history in northern Fujian, China

The Mount Wuyi area of northern Fujian Province, China, is famous for having produced superior teas for over 1500 years, including rock tea, which is the focus of this article. Locals evaluate sites in the mountain area in terms of the material quality of their tea plants and tea. The skills and techniques of specialist tea workers, and not just the terrain, are also regarded as essential in producing quality teas. These two elements, human skill and environment, have combined over time as embodied cultural knowledge, including a special vocabulary to judge the taste and fragrance of teas. Recent government attempts to set up a national tea quality standard for commercial purposes, emphasizing human skill and technique over felicitous environment, have had to accommodate the cultural importance of the traditional embodied knowledge of the ecology and hierarchy of tea appreciation.