Chajie 茶解

Chajie 茶解 is a book on tea written during the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Luo Lin 羅廩 (1573–1620), courtesy name Gaojun 高君, from Cixi 慈溪, Zhejiang. Of his life, nothing is known about. The preface, written by Tu Benjun 屠本畯 (1542–1622), was written in 1609, and the afterword in 1612.

The book describes in ten paragraphs the origins of tea and places of production, properties like colour and smell, the qualities of high-class and low-class teas, the right time of harvest, processing methods, storage, the use of good water, things to be avoided and the use of tools for preparation and serving. The text shows that the book is based on the author's own experience and not, as often done, on quotations from older texts. Quite surprisingly, the author warns not to use flowers or fruits to boost the flavour and smell of tea and is opposed to the widespread use of jasmine flowers but also to the application of borneol (longnao 龍腦). In fact, the aromatisation of tea started during the Ming period.

The full text can be found in the series Chashu quanji 茶書全集, while the version in the Xu shuofu 續說郛, and the encyclopaedia Gujin tushu jicheng 古今圖書集成 is abbreviated and rearranged.