Description
Product Description
AROUND THE WORLD IN A TEACUP
Did you know that tea is the most widely consumed beverage on the planet after water? Or that all of the world's tea originates from only three varieties of a single plant? While a cup of tea may be a simple pleasure for most of us, there are a dizzying number of tastes from which to choose. And every tea, whether a delicately sweet green tea from Japan or a bracing, brisk Darjeeling black, tells a story in the cup about the land that nurtured it and the tea-making skills that transformed it.
In this authoritative guide, veteran tea professionals Mary Lou and Robert J. Heiss provide decades of expertise on understanding tea and its origins, the many ways to buy tea, and how to explore and enjoy the six classes of tea (green, yellow, white, oolong, black, and Pu-erh). Additional advice on steeping the perfect cup and storing tea at home, alongside a gallery of more than thirty-five individual teas with tasting notes and descriptions make The Tea Enthusiast's Handbook a singular source of both practical information and rich detail about this fascinating beverage.
From Booklist
Making the perfect cuppa is not as easy as it may sound. How hot should the water be? How long should the tea steep? What kind of tea should be used in the first place? All pertinent tea-making questions are answered in knowlegeable, bouyant prose in this handy guide. The authors take readers along as they “explore the world of premium tea”; premium tea, once unknown in the West, is now very popular in the U.S. (“Tea,” by the way, is “the most widely consumed beverage on the planet after water” and “still proudly maintains its title as the world’s oldest beverage.”) Guidance is extended to purchasing and steeping tea, but the in-depth discussions of the properties and particular pleasures of the six classes of tea dominate most of the book’s pleasurable pages. Information on tea storage and a glossary round out this excellent introduction to a special world. --Brad Hooper
Review
Empty
From the Author
Tea and tea culture is our passion. We believe that learning as much as possible about tea and the process of artisan tea manufacture will heighten your enjoyment of each cup you steep. We hope you take delight in our journey through the vibrant world of tea.
Tea is consumed both as a thinking person's beverage and as an everyman's delight. Tea drinking is a tactile, sensory activity that provides both intellectual stimulation and aesthetic inspiration during times of social gathering or solitary contemplation.
Our search for fine tea draws us back time and again to Asia, for tea that is carefully crafted in small villages by master tea processors who have learned their skills from previous tea masters. In some countries, tea production is still very much hands-on work: a combination of science and cooperation from nature along with the experienced senses of tea workers who can see, feel, and hear the elusive changes occurring in the transformation of the fresh leaf into finished tea. From hand-plucking to hand-sorting, to hand-processing to hand-sorting again, and finally to hand-packing, we are fascinated by tea that is made by human hands that have developed the necessary sense of touch and feel that we call 'knowing.'
When we visit tea-producing countries we become the students to these masters, and are always humbled by their knowledge, their experience and their willingness to educate us so that we may in turn return and educate our customers and readers.
For more about our premium tea and to view images from our tea sourcing adventures, please visit: teatrekker.com
From the Inside Flap
Crafting fine tea requires a highly developed sense of perception for touch, sight, and sound that no machine can replicate. And every tea - from Taiwan's Ali Shan high mountain gao shan oolong to a brisk and bright Ceylon black tea from Nuwara Eliya region of Sri Lanka - tells a story in the cup about the soi
Features
- TEA ENTHUSIAST'S HANDBOOK