Saturday, October 17, 2009

The Book of Tea






“The Book of Tea” printed by Flammarion is made up of 3 essays about tea; “Tea gardens” by Alain Stella, “Time for tea” by Gilles Brochard and “The taste of tea” by Catherine Donzal.

“Tea Garden” deals with the various tea plantations of the world, from India, China, Japan, Ceylon and other countries. He explains and compares the tea and tea harvest between the countries and the beautiful pictures (please click the pix to read the text) help the reader visualize the essay.

“Time for tea” examines how the various teas round the world are prepared and drunk.  The author asserts  “Each day, over one and a half billion cups of tea are consumed on the planet”.  The pictures accompanying these essays are poignant and breathtaking.

“The taste of tea” explores the charms of drinking tea.  An excerpt – “The tea leaf itself bears the traits of the soil in which it was grown.  Each harvest has its own special quality, whether cultivated on the plains, in the mountains, on Himalayan slopes in springtime or in Ceylon during a hot summer.  Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage.  The names of the various regions alone conjures up distant lands, and the names of the gardens are even more evocative.” 

The last section of the book lists all the famous tea rooms of the world; name of tearoom, address, tel, website and a tiny write-up on these rooms.

 I found the book to be an interesting read.  Good pictures did helped me visualized the authors’ thoughts.  An excellent read.


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