Tea: A Miscellany Steeped with Trivia, History and Recipes

by Emily Kearns

How could we live without tea?

From its beginnings in Asia to its position as a popular global pick-me-up, tea has become the drink of choice for two billion people every morning!

This charming miscellany, packed full of fascinating facts and practical advice, as well as tasty recipes from spicy chai tea to traditional tea loaf, will intrigue, inform and delight lovers of this cheering beverage across the globe.

Genres: Tea, Nonfiction, History, Food, Cooking, Reference, Food and Drink

208 pages, Hardcover

First published March 5, 2015

Reviews

[Maxi Bolongaita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute book, quick read, very informative.

[Victoria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Typical and trite collection of quotations, simple histories, and recipes. Most is over simplified, a lot is condescending ("haha, aren't other cultures silly?"). Very British perspective

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Initial thoughts: Neat little book about tea that gives a brief historical overview, an introduction to the diiffetent types and lists where they’re grown in the world. There’s not much depth though, and the book is cut even shorter through the quotes interspersed throughout the book. (One quote was repeated, not sure if that’s on purpose or an oversight.)

Not quite a coffee table book but not quite a solidly researched book either, it’s a book for tea lovers seeking some (very) light reading on their favourite drink.

What was missing for me was the provenance. There was no information whatsoever provided about the author. What’s her link to tea (besides being British, I inferred)? Here reference to “chai tea” didn’t help to establish authority on the subject either and with a fair number of sweeping statements, I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the book. If anything, it’s a simple introduction to tea, offering a springboard at the shallow end towards further exploration.

[LaurieAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this little book. It's a perfect book for dipping in and out of to get little tidbits of tea information. I even bought a copy to send to a tea loving friend.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

Light on overall info, but a great source for quotes about tea.

[Pamela Hamon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would classify this light-reading book as the "book report" of tea information. The miscellany in the title is true to the product! It is written from a British tea culture perspective.

Much of the market research notes and data on tea production consumption by country vary by year to year like other agricultural products so take them with a grain of salt. Information provided on Chinese tea varieties was the tip of the iceberg, given the vast depths of production regions and tea styles available in China.

Unlike other tea books that include recipes, this one provides the recipes by weight (much preferred by serious bakers) and includes tea as an ingredient.

The design of the book was a little heavy-handed at times, especially when presenting quotes. The tea quotes chosen didn't seem to relate to the text at hand so they presented in a bit of a disjointed manner.

[Starfire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the best word I can come up with to describe this book is 'cute'.

I love the idea of it, and there are some great tea quotes in there. But it's something that I think works better in concept than execution - it was light on detail, and I found myself thinking, "Cite your sources, damnit!" several times, especially when the author started citing health benefits.

On the plus side, it was short - I got through it in an evening after I'd just finished another book, and it worked as the 'light palate cleanser' between fiction books that I'd picked it up as.

It did, however, whet my appetite for more in-depth explorations of tea that I can pick up from my local library now that it's open again.

[Colby Moorberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a quick and easy read. I read an e-book version on the Moodle app on my cell phone. The formatting was terrible. The book itself was kind of meh. Also, despite what the British say, milk in tea is gross. The book was definitely written for the British tea drinker, and not really anyone else it seemed. The generalizations about Americans were interesting as well. I assume generalizations made about other nationalities and their tea drinking habits were similarly off base.

[Cameron Toney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was trying to think of how to describe this book. Its not a coffee table book, and its not a textbook or other technical writing. But it is perfectly titled- a miscellany.

This is a fun little book, with lots of quotes about tea, ideas for recipes and some general history and facts about tea.

This is just a happy little read, about one of my favorite things.

[Allison S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short and cute book on tea. There are many tea quotes from historical figures, books, and movies interspersed with various information on the history and variety of teas. Yes, it is oversimplified, but that makes it a quick read and easy quick reference book. A good starting off place to learn about tea.

[Vestealva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neat and cute, though very short, book, which serves as a superficial introduction to the topic, without getting into any depth. The quotes are nice, though in some of them the tea part is not very relevant, so those are kind of unnecessary.

Now, if only I liked tea myself I might have enjoyed it more. Or perhaps the other way around, who knows.

[Alexandra Buha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relaxing, full of beautiful quotes, surprised me with the varieties of teas that are presented, perfect with a cup of tea, interesting recipes and easy to read

[Caburns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the interesting facts and fun quotes regarding tea. Would have liked to see pictures of the tea plants and stages of processing.

[Timothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A light, short book. Could have been better eg missed out on difference between tea and cha.

[Hannah-Renea Niederberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was alright, it didn't have as many interesting/whimsical factoids as I think I was expecting and it's deeply, deeply English-centric.

[John Kropewnicki · Rating 1 out of 5]

This books feels like a middle-schooler googled every term on wikipedia related to #tea; printed them out; then put them in a book binder.

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Superficially researched at best.

Amusingly the recipe for Russian tea contained pineapple juice as an ingredient.