RFDT was very helpful in my writing my book, which I had largely completed many months before I joined the group but I found it very valuable in fine tuning the mss. I show here all my references to it, so you can see what I said and, please, if you have any concerns, let me know. I've tried hard to make sure I don't rip anyone off but a distinctive new problem in attribution and citations is that web site materials are ephemeral. In many instances, I can't provide date, page and author because it's disappeared or is buried deep in archives that I can't locate now. I hope you sense my deep appreciation of the group. Thank you, so much.
(From the Acknowledgements..........)
This is my first book that essentially is an Internet book. My research relies on the Web-I estimate that I browsed 2-3 thousand sites to find information, check facts, and get new ideas. 90% of my tea purchases are made online and otherwise I would not have been able to buy most of the teas that I review. I drew heavily on the expertise of the members of the Google USENET group rec.food.drink.tea who provide insights and information that I could never otherwise have found.
I recommend that if you do get actively interested in great teas, you sign up for the Google chat group rec.food.drink.tea. I find this a very helpful forum that includes some highly knowledgeable discussions of individual teas. I learnt more about Pu-erh from the enthusiasts on it than from any other source. I also find it valuable as a reality check. When I get interested in exploring some particular tea, I often take a quick look at what the group participants are saying and what their general degree of "buzz" about it is. They are also a very useful guide to which suppliers-online, offline, producers and wholesalers-that they find to be good and bad; they can and do say things that I shouldn't in this book. The discussions are also a constant reminder to me that my own opinions are just that. Tea is a personal taste and there are a lot of people who enjoy what I think are boiled tree bark, spiced up mouthwash, or compost heap. Equally, there are many who share my tastes but have far more sophisticated knowledge of, for instance, China whites. I could masquerade as an expert on Baihao oolong and which suppliers to buy it from, just by synthesizing the group discussions. There is, of course, also plenty of verbiage and chat that drifts and doesn't add up to anything interesting and useful, but all in all this is among the best information resources that I have found on the Web.
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It is fun reading the terms that Pu-erh connoisseurs use to describe them. These examples are taken from the Google group rec.food.drink.tea, which I recommend to anyone who becomes seriously interested in tea. I am amazed by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the Pu-erh lovers who provide their analyses. Here are a few from online reviews: "3rd steep 45 seconds: wood, mulch, touch of damp basement"; "there was just a hint of a wet laundry thing here"; "I've come to appreciate the rancid taste in more recent shu than the coffee taste in something more mature... I mean rancid as in ashy, fishy, moldy"; "Don't bother with their breaking it up with a hammer instructions. I find it's much easier it to pry it apart with a knife."
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As support for my classifying Matcha as a Maybe, rather than a Luxury Zowie, which is how enthusiasts rate it, let me quote comments from the Google tea group that I find useful in getting a sense of how tea lovers far more knowledgeable than myself judge individual products (rec.food.drink.tea): "Also you should be aware that the quality of Matcha varies greatly. Most of the Matcha sold outside of Japan is very poor grade. It often does not produce a nice froth, and sometimes is even slight brown, as opposed to a rich pea green. To get good Matcha, you need to shop at a good Japanese market, preferably one that sells other supplies used in the tea ceremony." (Oeufs, anyone?) "Either Matcha is really unpleasant, or it is really unforgiving. Does anybody know the proper ratio of powder to water, the correct temp to brew it, the timing of the whisking action (before, during or after it has had time to infuse) and other essential directions to ensure the proper experience? All I've gotten out of it is very bitter and vegetal green soup. Help!"
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One topic that I have not addressed so far is the issue of rebrewing teas. Since caffeine is water soluble and rapidly released in the first two minutes of infusion, then obviously there will be less of it in a second or third brewing. The question is how much less. Surprisingly, there is almost no discussion of this in either the scientific literature on caffeine or that on tea. As I was quite literally going through my final edit of the manuscript of Great Teas I posted a query on the Google group Rec.food.drink.tea that I have mentioned several times. At last I got the answer. I want to thank "cha bing" for pointing me to an article with the exotic title of "Tea preparation and its influence on methylxanthine concentration" that appeared in Food Research International in 1996.
REFERENCES
These "endnotes" provide references to material that I directly quote from articles, books and Web sites. This is part of the etiquette of writing, that an author should cite sources and give credit to the originator. That can be difficult with the ever-changing, evanescent world of the Web. If I have inadvertently failed to give credit, I apologize and will repair the error in later editions of Great Teas. Where it is clear that an item is a cut-and-paste job that is on many sites and where the original source is unknown, I do not feel obliged to cite it. That is another huge problem on the Web in general and on tea sellers' sites in particular.
Paula Murray, Fancy A Nice Cup of Dust?, Daily Record.co.uk, March
27, 2007 liquidplanet.com/Yixing-p-1-c-42.html, and about 30 other Web sites. Same exact wording on each site. I do not list the company here, but it is national, offers some very good teas, and ought to know better. Wikipedia.org: "Tea sandwich" George Orwell, A Nice Cup of Tea, Evening Standard, 12 January, 1946 Andrew Jefford, The Best Drink in the World, Financial Times, October 28,2006 Actionaid.org.uk/_content/documents/teabreakreport.pdf The newsletter has disappeared from the Web, There are many available articles on Darjeeling intellectual property rights. The Key term is "TRIPS." teavilla.com/2004/07/bubble-tea.htm O-cha.com, the web site of a company located in Iwaki-city, Fukushima, Japan Google group: rec.food.drink.tea; exact citation hard to provide, because search engines do not pick up Group chat material Ibid (Latin for "same as above") Michelle Williams, Tea Trek, Nepal, Fresh Cup Magazine, March 2002 Rudra Kharda, 7 security personnel killed in Salyan, nepalnews.com, June 2002 Ghoshal Sharma, Six Killed As Nepal Rebels Attack, Boston.com News, March 6, 2006