Let's speak about Tea-Books

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christian
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:48 pm
Location: Sicily

Tue Dec 26, 2017 5:05 am

Hi guys, recently an Italian friend asked me about good books on tea, to understand better, improve her knowledges about teas varieties, production zones, taste and so on. Not history or preparation to be honest.

Of course i answer about what i know on Italian language, but i realised also that i have not idea if there is something good on these themes in english that could be suitable also for me.

Any suggestion?
Thanks
.:C
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Elise
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Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:56 am

There is a helpful book for a beginning from Palais des Thes (in French)
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/search?index=b ... 2842777005
Not sure you find it in English though. I also have a few other titles in French, if you want just ask.
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christian
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Location: Sicily

Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:14 am

Elise wrote:
Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:56 am
There is a helpful book for a beginning from Palais des Thes (in French)
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/search?index=b ... 2842777005
Not sure you find it in English though. I also have a few other titles in French, if you want just ask.
Thanks, but unfortunately i don't speak French. So I'm asking for English books. But I'll forward the info to my friend, if she is able to read French i could ask you more titles. Again thanks for answer. (=
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Bok
Vendor
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Location: Taiwan

Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:48 pm

christian wrote:
Tue Dec 26, 2017 11:14 am
Elise wrote:
Tue Dec 26, 2017 7:56 am
There is a helpful book for a beginning from Palais des Thes (in French)
https://www.amazon.fr/gp/search?index=b ... 2842777005
Not sure you find it in English though. I also have a few other titles in French, if you want just ask.
Thanks, but unfortunately i don't speak French. So I'm asking for English books. But I'll forward the info to my friend, if she is able to read French i could ask you more titles. Again thanks for answer. (=
There is an English version of the book. Informative as a basic starting point but not more than that. Better than the average general Tea book though.
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Tillerman
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Tue Dec 26, 2017 8:25 pm

I give a very strong recommendation to The World Tea Encyclopaedia by Will Battle. It is published in the UK so if you hurry and get it before Brexit all should be good.
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Bok
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Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:47 pm

The best book I have read about tea is this one:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/602 ... ime-of-tea

The time of tea.

It is not for everyone, as the structure of the book is rather unusual – no wonder – it is written by a Frenchman, haha
A lot of information on tea, as loosely organised paragraphs, some connected some not, touching all sort of tea-relevant things. Philosophical, historical, practical, scientific etc. The good thing about this unorthodox structure is that you can cross-read as you please.

Very nice to muse over while brewing tea!

It also touches on teas cousins, coffee and cocoa.

It comes in two volumes, whereas the second one are only images.
They book emphasizes (also via the images) a few main groups which have each their own particular tea culture and which the author considers the important ones:
– China/Taiwan
– Japan
– Great Britain
– Morroco

Highly recommended.
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Bok
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Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:49 pm

A random visit to book shops keep me wondering if the authors do know about tea at all…
A lot more good books about tea are available in Chinese, but then that is out of reach for most of us :mrgreen:

In the end I have found blogs and forums like this a lot better for gathering knowledge. There simply is not one book that has this kind of information in English. They all scratch the surface only.
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Bok
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Tue Dec 26, 2017 10:52 pm

Or go back to the classics, like Lu Yu…
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Greywacke
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Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:45 am

The problem, especially in tea production/regions, is that the experts working in those fields aren't writing books. At most, they're writing papers, published to journals, hidden behind paywalls. The people writing tea books these days are often bloggers, often tea lovers or tea vendors, who aren't quite working at the source. Information comes out too quickly for physical publications these days (which is why lots of people do lean more towards blogs for their sources).

For books on production and varieties, I second The World Atlas of Tea; it's also one of the most recent publications, so time hasn't caught up to it quite as much. There's lots of hand-guides on tea varieties (I'm assuming you mean like types of black and green teas, rather than varietals and cultivars, of which there are considerably less publications); Tea: A User's Guide is new, very solid. The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook is another one I have which I like well enough, although there are definitely thicker, more extensive books. Both of these also go a bit over production (A User's Guide moreso; it's definitely worth a read).

If she's really interested, they're out of date but still apply: look for books written by William Ukers or C. R. Harler; the former includes All About Tea Vol 1 and 2, and The Romance of Tea. The latter has Tea Growing, and Tea Manufacture, plus books on marketing and culture. Much more on production, very British-India centric in Harler's case (since he worked in the industry there). All About Tea is in the public domain, so pdfs are available; Harler's occasionally pop up as well; I THINK they're public domain, but I can't be sure.

I've also come across a couple heavy textbooks on tea genetics (synthesized from papers), but otherwise most are on tea prep, culture and history. The hand-guides are nice for tea drinking, general tasting-notes and the like.
Noonie
Posts: 360
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 12:30 pm
Location: Ontario, Canada

Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:01 pm

I like have the two English books from this vendor in Quebec (also available in French):

http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/teaware/books
century
Posts: 21
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:51 am
Location: Toronto

Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:59 pm

I’m reading through this:

https://g.co/kgs/eKQz6h

Very good so far. Lots of good information.

E
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