Favorite Tea Books?
One of my favorites is ‘The Republic of Tea’:
http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Tea-Creation-Business-Personal/dp/0385420579
It’s less of a history-of-tea type book and more of a business book, but it’s still totally amazing. It’s about how the company got started. The founders met on a plane and the book is a collection of the faxes (this was in the early nineties) they sent back and forth to each other!
I have a pretty limited selection of literature, but my favourite would be Christian Hincheldey’s ‘The – fra blad til kop’ (Tea – from leaf to cup). The Hincheldey family owns A C Perch’s in Copenhagen, and the book is one part many and gorgeous pictures, one part tea theory and one part the 175 years history of the shop. The latter was really interesting and told really well. I laughed out loud several times, and wished I could have experienced some of the previous owners. Especially the two men who owned the shop during WWII, they sounded amusingly eccentric. This one is my favourite tea book ever.
I have a book of tea quotes, that I think I picked up at Teavana. It’s called “Tea Wisdom”, I believe. Small book, and it’s got chapters on Relaxation and Meditation, having company, health….
all just quotes. It’s very nice for light reading.
I’d probably say more, but I’m in class and I don’t have the book with me.
I just received “The Story of Tea” and I’m not even halfway through it yet. Explains history of tea (I’d never heard of yellow tea before this book), tea types, tea production (including a mind-bogglingly complex nine-step process for making oolong tea) and a detailed glossary of official tea tasting terms.
Another good book is called “Tea Bliss: Infuse Your Life with health, Wisdom and Contentment” by Theresa Chueng. It is nowhere near as detailed as the former book, but manages to blend together tea and self-help. One of the most relaxing and smile-inducing books I’ve read in a long time.
The Story of Tea, while not the best writing in the world, is a great resource for tea lovers. I try to reread it every couple of months so that I can keep absorbing all the information!
I agree that the Story of Tea can be repetitive but it is the go to book for knowledge on all things tea.
My two favorites are
“Then New Tea Companion” which has good information and beautiful color illustrations.
and
“The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World’s Most Popular Drug” which looks at coffee, tea, and chocolate, covering their history and the science of how caffeine works in the body.
I’m currently reading The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura, which introduced tea, zen, teaism, and other Asian ideas in the the US in the early 20th century. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done.
If anyone wants The Book of Tea for freeee:
http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/o#a406
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Tea-Kakuzo-Okakura/dp/0486200701
I haven’t actually read it, but I was wondering if anyone has read Jason Witt’s book “Spirituality of Tea: God’s Blessing for your Mind, Body, and Spirit”. I’ve talked to him briefly and I was wondering what people thought of it if they’ve read it. Here’s a link to it in amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449560261/ref=cm_pdp_books_itm_img_1
I turn to the Internet Archive when I want to explore antique books about tea. It is a great place to have free access to all kinds of topics. You may read online or download and print off specific pages such as a recipe to try. Here’s the link:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=tea%20AND%20mediatype:texts
Any good kindle books?
I haven’t used their Kindle beta version but it is available for many of the books in the archive.org collections. The vast volumes of texts in the Project Gutenberg collection are always available in the text format . If you haven’t spent time visiting this site, I think you should brew a big pot of tea and settle in to explore. I’m sure you’ll be hooked. I enjoy the old illustrations in the old books. For me, it is like wandering through a magnificent library.
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