books on tea?

Hi Ole--

I just received _All The Tea In China_ by Kit Chow and Ione Kramer, and was surprised at how meaty it looks. I've only skimmed it so far, but it appears to be both fun and informative.

Hope that helps!

Jennifer

Yes, but I remember getting irritated at a number of mistakes. (Sorry, I can't remember them, and I didn't keep the book. How's that for irresponsibility?)

/Lew

Hey, not as irresponsible as me for recommending a book I haven't really read yet! *grin*

I'll read it, but with a sharp eye. Thanks for the heads-up. Are there any English-language books that you'd recommend, Lew? I'm hoping this thread will turn up some good reading material.

Jennifer

An "entertaining, easy-to-read and informative", basic introductory book is: "Tea Basics", by Rasmussen and Rhinehart

06786775/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-9460728-3117459?v=glance&s=books). You can read this one in a day or less.

One of the best I've read is: "New Tea Lover's Treasury", by James Norwood Pratt (this is the recent edition from 1999, not the old one). This was my first tea book, and I think that, if I could only have one out of all those I've read, I'd still pick this one. It's not perfect, but then most others are SO far from perfect that Pratt's still stands out. You may need to buy this from a tea dealer or shop, rather than a book dealer.

I mostly liked the Chow and Kramer; unlike Lew, I'm mostly too tea ignorant to spot any but the most egregious mistakes, and don't remember noticing any. Aspects are annoying, such as a long chapter on the supposed health benefits, which, considering the book's from 1990, seems especially overblown. But they have a consistent explicit emphasis on using pinyin romanization instead of antique Brit alternates, which I liked. So a mixed bag, but overall worth it. I just wish they would update it - it would be a killer if they did it right.

Finally, one I've read from the library, because it costs

06785725/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9460728-3117459?v=glance&s=books) a lot, is John Blofeld's "The Chinese Art of Tea". This is partly almost memoir, about aspects of the author's years in China; it's been a couple years since I read it but I liked it then. I may even try to pick up a used one.

I just finished

06786039/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9460728-3117459?v=glance&s=books: "The Time of Tea", by two French guys, Pasqualini and Suet. This is a two-volume set, one vol. text, the other photographs. This does not fit your requirements, as it is *neither* easy to read nor entertaining (in the usual since), though it *seems* to have a very large amount of information in it. It's also no longer in print. The text volume could have been 2/3 the length and still kept everything useful and interesting. It's more of a quirky "tea ramble" than a well-organized book. The photo volume is mostly nice, but the reproduction is inexplicably (and inexcusably given the price) not very sharp, in part apparently because of the paper; a few photos seem to be actual mistakes (oops, I think I just tripped the shutter).

One disappointing thing you'll find if you gather enough tea book recommendations, both from here and from tea dealers' and other tea-related web sites: *many* tea books, especially including many recommended ones, are out of print. It appears that (I'm extrapolating some here) a common publishing practice is: a) print 4 copies of your new tea book; b) set a insanely high price on it, the higher the better; c) leave it "in print" for about a week; d) call it quits and write in your memoirs that "I once published a tea book".

Another common publishing practice, at least recently, is to publish tea books in which 30-40% of a very limited page count is actually about tea - with nothing deep or sustained, just repeating the same old superficial stuff - with the rest of the book being recipes of one sort or another that maybe have tea as one ingredient.

My $.02.

Doug

Lewis snipped-for-privacy@panix1.panix.com1/26/05 18: snipped-for-privacy@panix.com

Not so fast, buddy. You can borrow my copy to document and correct the mistakes. We want substance.

Michael

A nice large volume (roughly 10 by 13 inch, half photos) for the tea AKA coffee table:

The Book of Tea forward by Anthony Burgess ISBN 2-08-013533-3, Flammarion, 1993, 256 pages

Jim

Ole Kvaal wrote:

entertaining,

Space snipped-for-privacy@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com1/27/05

08: snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com

Jim,

I have that book and I love the pictures. My (hardcover) copy has no date that I can find. It's weird. I looked all over it. Probably missed it. Where's the 1993 date printed?

Michael

I keep forgetting. My book has no print date. Mine still has the ISBN tag dated 11/03/93 used for scanning. The print date could be older but that book shoppe was the biggest or one of the biggest in the country and still is, Tattered Cover. I'm sure it was hot off the presses since it was hardback. My favorite photo Page 111, the old Chinese guy sipping from his gaiwan. It looks a little larger than the ones I buy in Chinatown.

Jim

Michael Plant wrote:

snipped-for-privacy@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com1/27/05

Depends on what you mean by "English-language" and "recommend". The JN Pratt book is breezy and fun to read but kind of casual about facts, and by now you might not learn very much from it. And then there's _The Time of Tea_, sort-of translated from the deconstructionist dialect of French: I found it often maddening, but the guy is extremely smart and knows a lot.

/Lew

You know, there is an old tea shop in a water town (called Zhouzhuang) in the Zhejiang province. In that shop, an old man and woman had the coolest gaiwans that I had seen. The gaiwans weren't so tall as the normal ones used for steeping tea in, they were a little wider brimmed and flatter and used for drinking. I searched high and low in the southern part of China to locate a gaiwan just for drinking tea but I could not find them anywhere.

When I hung out in Chinatown in Toronto, I couldn't even find any there. I was told by nearly everyone that such gaiwan aren't used anymore to drink tea with except for by very old people. It's such a pity; those wider brims are sure easier to drink from than the smaller brimmed ones...you can actually get some tea without having to spit the leaves back into the gaiwan. heh.

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

Cripes, $43! I had to pop and check, and yes, my pre 1997 copy has a $9.99 price on the back. What a mark up!

[snip]

Zhouzhuang)

brimmed

[snip]

Intriguing - I haven't seen these before. Do you know of any pictures of this style gaiwan on the web?

sally

I think there were a few pictures, but it's on an ex-girlfriend's camera that I'm not on speaking terms with at this time...heh. If I go back to zhejiang or visit shanghai, I intend to return to that town for the strict purpose of trying to locate one of the gaiwans. I haven't been able to find any on the web either...

Mydnight

-------------------- thus then i turn me from my countries light, to dwell in the solemn shades of an endless night.

Alain Stella was a main contributor to The Book of Tea. I notice he is also a contributor to Mariage Freres: French Tea which retails in my local book store for $100. It is sealed and I don't want to spend that kind of money even if discounted on the Internet and find it is a sales brochure. Does anyone have a copy and care to comment about it contents?

Jim

Space Cowboy wrote:

Space snipped-for-privacy@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com1/28/05

10: snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com

Jim,

I scan the second hand book stores regularly, especially the larger ones. Every book turns up eventually at prices even you and I can spring for. I'd be loath to pay $100. Besides, I'm not a Mariage Freres fan, so I'm in no hurry to find their book. I do like The Book of Tea though. Most of my tea books I've bought for the pictures. For information, I rely on rfdt.

Michael

Birger Nielsen website is a good place to start-

While I do enjoy some of his writing, James Norwood Pratt comes off as pretty pretentious to me. Maybe it's just me, though.

There is a wonderful book by DK Taknet on Indian teas...called The Heritag of Indian Teas. Quite expensive and almost impossible to find in the West, but it can be ordered from the Indian publisher. Here is the link that provides an excerpt and at the bottom is the publishers information..

Pavansut

Taknet's book is available for $201.86 from Amazon.com.

RBD