He pinched up a small amount of tea leaves with his fingertips.
Tips
usage
As a measure word cuō counts tiny amounts taken between the fingers: 一撮盐 (a pinch of salt). As a verb it means to pinch up or to bring together, as in 撮合 (to matchmake). A separate reading zuǒ is the classifier for a tuft of hair or grass.
Left hand radical, the side form of 手. It indexes 撮 in the action-with-hands family: 抓 (grab), 捏 (pinch), 摘 (pluck). It names the pinching gesture of gathering a tiny amount between thumb and fingertips.
Right side 最 supplies the sound, zuì drifting to cuō. Faintly semantic too: 最 originally meant 'to gather all together', and 撮 means to gather a tiny pinch by hand.
