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Little Book of Tea
Flammarion presents its series of informative, richly illustrated guides, covering lifestyle and cultural topics. Find out everything you want to know about your favorite subject in one handy volume.
• Unique thematic treatment with extensive use of key words and cross-referencing
• Over 70 alphabetically organized bite-sized entries in every title
• Attractive slimline format
• 100 color illustrations
• Summaries of key facts and dates in easy-reference tables
• Exclusive buyer's guide or list of useful addresses to find out more
Flammarion presents its series of informative, richly illustrated guides, covering lifestyle and cultural topics. Find out everything you want to know about your favorite subject in one handy volume.
• Unique thematic treatment with extensive use of key words and cross-referencing
• Over 70 alphabetically organized bite-sized entries in every title
• Attractive slimline format
• 100 color illustrations
• Summaries of key facts and dates in easy-reference tables
• Exclusive buyer's guide or list of useful addresses to find out more
• Unique thematic treatment with extensive use of key words and cross-referencing
• Over 70 alphabetically organized bite-sized entries in every title
• Attractive slimline format
• 100 color illustrations
• Summaries of key facts and dates in easy-reference tables
• Exclusive buyer's guide or list of useful addresses to find out more
Flammarion presents its series of informative, richly illustrated guides, covering lifestyle and cultural topics. Find out everything you want to know about your favorite subject in one handy volume.
• Unique thematic treatment with extensive use of key words and cross-referencing
• Over 70 alphabetically organized bite-sized entries in every title
• Attractive slimline format
• 100 color illustrations
• Summaries of key facts and dates in easy-reference tables
• Exclusive buyer's guide or list of useful addresses to find out more
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 21, 2014
Today's tea book is a classic, ok 1996 is not really classic (nor is the English translation that came out in 2001) but time flies and knowledge evolves. The Little Book of Tea is a collaboration between Kitti Cha Sangmanee (tea expert and president of Mariage Freres Tea) Catherine Donzel (historian) Stephane Melchior-Durand (art historian) and Alain Stella (writer) all this listed on the back flap.
Before I get into this book, I flipped to the back (where the publication info was listed) and low and behold there is a steeping chart. I am glad I was not sipping tea at this point because I would have done a spit-take! The recommend Silver Needle steeps at 158-185 degrees for 15 minutes! That seems a little intense, but Mariage Freres is a well known and respected tea establishment, and I am nothing if not game for an experiment, so I am giving this a try. At 158 degrees for the advised 15 minutes...but more on that later.
Time for the book! This book is in fact tiny, it could probably slip in a purse or large pocket pretty easily, but for all its 120 pages the information is tightly packed and surrounded by lovely photography and tea themed illustrations. It begins with a brief yet fairly thorough history of tea and classification of tea, you know, the basics. Though this does make the mistake of calling oxidation fermentation, but since this book is being translated from French, I am willing to let it pass, even though I do twitch every time it comes up.
After that is the real 'meat' of the book, an alphabetical guide to tea. This section is filled with some tasty little nuggets of history and culture, even if it does seem more skewed towards Western tea culture and history than Eastern. Don't get me wrong, it does cover major tea producing countries, they even mention Korea's tea culture which frequently gets overlooked, but they also have sections about specific tea estates in Sri Lanka and India along side the individual countries's entries. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a book geared towards one culture or another, but when a book styles itself as 'Everything you wanted to know about your favorite subject in one handy volume' I do expect it to be a bit more diverse.
There were a few points of information that are now a bit dated, making it incorrect now but at the time it was correct, so I am not going to be too harsh on the book for that, it is not a time travel book of paradoxes after all. Examples of this are only referring to Taiwan as Formosa, and my favorite, not knowing which chemical reactions happen during oxidation and no one knowing exactly how the qualities are produced. Luckily we have a pretty good idea of what is going on, and there are some excellent articles written on the subject (I suggest Tony Gebely's What is Oxidation and Boston Teawright's Tea Tannins Part 3 Black Tea for some really juicy details) Also there was no mention of Pu erh at all, which was a little odd. I also was not a fan of the book's disdain of adding cream, sugar, or lemon to teas, pfft, drink tea however you want...their claim that a true connoisseur would never add lemon to tea, especially a green tea, is ridiculous...lemon is delicious in sencha!
The last couple pages have a Tea Connoisseur's Guide chart (I have a weakness for charts and tables) that have the tea divided by country. They give a brief description of what it is and what time of day it is best for. There are a few food pairing suggestions, and whether or not milk is ok to be added, but mostly it focuses on time of day Also bonus points for mentioning South American teas, yay for rarely talked about tea estates!
So you are probably wondering about that 15 minute steep, it is actually pretty delicious, tepid, but delicious! On a whim I did the second steep also at 15 minutes but at 170 degrees, sadly this was bland and boring because all the flavor went into the previous steep! Me thinks I am going to experiments with these crazy parameters some. They remind me of steeping the tea Grandpa Style, except the tea is removed instead of water being added as it gets low. Final thoughts on The Little Book of Tea? I recommend it, it is a little dated and has a few flaws, but it s a good beginner's guide to tea and its history.
For blog post: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blog...
Before I get into this book, I flipped to the back (where the publication info was listed) and low and behold there is a steeping chart. I am glad I was not sipping tea at this point because I would have done a spit-take! The recommend Silver Needle steeps at 158-185 degrees for 15 minutes! That seems a little intense, but Mariage Freres is a well known and respected tea establishment, and I am nothing if not game for an experiment, so I am giving this a try. At 158 degrees for the advised 15 minutes...but more on that later.
Time for the book! This book is in fact tiny, it could probably slip in a purse or large pocket pretty easily, but for all its 120 pages the information is tightly packed and surrounded by lovely photography and tea themed illustrations. It begins with a brief yet fairly thorough history of tea and classification of tea, you know, the basics. Though this does make the mistake of calling oxidation fermentation, but since this book is being translated from French, I am willing to let it pass, even though I do twitch every time it comes up.
After that is the real 'meat' of the book, an alphabetical guide to tea. This section is filled with some tasty little nuggets of history and culture, even if it does seem more skewed towards Western tea culture and history than Eastern. Don't get me wrong, it does cover major tea producing countries, they even mention Korea's tea culture which frequently gets overlooked, but they also have sections about specific tea estates in Sri Lanka and India along side the individual countries's entries. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a book geared towards one culture or another, but when a book styles itself as 'Everything you wanted to know about your favorite subject in one handy volume' I do expect it to be a bit more diverse.
There were a few points of information that are now a bit dated, making it incorrect now but at the time it was correct, so I am not going to be too harsh on the book for that, it is not a time travel book of paradoxes after all. Examples of this are only referring to Taiwan as Formosa, and my favorite, not knowing which chemical reactions happen during oxidation and no one knowing exactly how the qualities are produced. Luckily we have a pretty good idea of what is going on, and there are some excellent articles written on the subject (I suggest Tony Gebely's What is Oxidation and Boston Teawright's Tea Tannins Part 3 Black Tea for some really juicy details) Also there was no mention of Pu erh at all, which was a little odd. I also was not a fan of the book's disdain of adding cream, sugar, or lemon to teas, pfft, drink tea however you want...their claim that a true connoisseur would never add lemon to tea, especially a green tea, is ridiculous...lemon is delicious in sencha!
The last couple pages have a Tea Connoisseur's Guide chart (I have a weakness for charts and tables) that have the tea divided by country. They give a brief description of what it is and what time of day it is best for. There are a few food pairing suggestions, and whether or not milk is ok to be added, but mostly it focuses on time of day Also bonus points for mentioning South American teas, yay for rarely talked about tea estates!
So you are probably wondering about that 15 minute steep, it is actually pretty delicious, tepid, but delicious! On a whim I did the second steep also at 15 minutes but at 170 degrees, sadly this was bland and boring because all the flavor went into the previous steep! Me thinks I am going to experiments with these crazy parameters some. They remind me of steeping the tea Grandpa Style, except the tea is removed instead of water being added as it gets low. Final thoughts on The Little Book of Tea? I recommend it, it is a little dated and has a few flaws, but it s a good beginner's guide to tea and its history.
For blog post: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blog...
February 2, 2008
An interesting little book with a large compilation of facts about tea. It has nice photos as well.
August 3, 2018
This is a "tea miscellany" book. The book is split in to three sections: orientation to the world of tea, the story of tea - a richly illustrated introduction to the beverage of tea and its world context, and an alphabetical guide to tea facts from historical to production notes and everything in between.
My biggest fault in this book is that despite one of the authors being president of renown tea company in Paris, I was very surprised to see the word "fermentation" used repeatedly in the book where "oxidization" should have been used. Many heicha (dark teas) in China, especially shou puer, go through an actual controlled fermentation process outside the oxidization process. Wulongs, green teas, and Chinese reds do not go through this.
While many of the photographs were stunning, especially landscapes, portraits, and reproductions of artworks, most of the tea photographs were too shadowy or colored incorrectly and made the tea look unappetizing or simply incorrect.
The book concludes with what is likely its most interesting and valuable contribution: a suggested guide to styles of tea and what time of day to enjoy them (e.g. morning, after meal, afternoon, evening, etc). The infusion chart on the final page is a good base guideline to getting the best out of different major styles of tea. I had never heard of infusing Silver Needle (Yin Zhen) 15 minutes or White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) 7 minutes at very low temperature but I will give it a try.
All that said, this book presents a quick read and introduction to many of the key persons, places, teas, and events in the history of tea. If you read with the above caveats in mind, you'll begin to develop a deeper appreciation of this fine beverage.
My biggest fault in this book is that despite one of the authors being president of renown tea company in Paris, I was very surprised to see the word "fermentation" used repeatedly in the book where "oxidization" should have been used. Many heicha (dark teas) in China, especially shou puer, go through an actual controlled fermentation process outside the oxidization process. Wulongs, green teas, and Chinese reds do not go through this.
While many of the photographs were stunning, especially landscapes, portraits, and reproductions of artworks, most of the tea photographs were too shadowy or colored incorrectly and made the tea look unappetizing or simply incorrect.
The book concludes with what is likely its most interesting and valuable contribution: a suggested guide to styles of tea and what time of day to enjoy them (e.g. morning, after meal, afternoon, evening, etc). The infusion chart on the final page is a good base guideline to getting the best out of different major styles of tea. I had never heard of infusing Silver Needle (Yin Zhen) 15 minutes or White Peony (Bai Mu Dan) 7 minutes at very low temperature but I will give it a try.
All that said, this book presents a quick read and introduction to many of the key persons, places, teas, and events in the history of tea. If you read with the above caveats in mind, you'll begin to develop a deeper appreciation of this fine beverage.
April 2, 2018
Can be quite dry and snooty so not really for the casual tea drinker. Interesting for the history though.
August 20, 2012
Just what its title proclaims, this is a slim pocketbook that details the history of this glorious brew that has been imbibed by mankind for thousands of years. The stumbles, triumphs, failures, rebellions and hardships that have accompanied tea as it made its way around the world are outlined with accompanying engravings, photographs, and paintings as well as the details of the various different teas that lie in wait for the curious amateur or serious connoisseur. There are chapters devoted to the hideous slavery that attended some merchants’s grim efforts to make a profit as well as ones that show the various exquisite teapots that can be used for tea brewing and the teas for which they are most suited, when and how tea should be drunk (milk is permissible; lemon and sugar are frowned on by the serious imbibers).
This book also contains helpful information in the back about the various teas and an infusion guide about how long to steep them. This book is easy to follow and carry. My only minor objection is that it makes no distinction between tea (brewed from Camellia sinensis, the only true genus and species) and tisanes (which include things like chamomile, mint, chicory, rose hip, lavender, ginger and the various fruit blends and aren’t true teas at all).
This book also contains helpful information in the back about the various teas and an infusion guide about how long to steep them. This book is easy to follow and carry. My only minor objection is that it makes no distinction between tea (brewed from Camellia sinensis, the only true genus and species) and tisanes (which include things like chamomile, mint, chicory, rose hip, lavender, ginger and the various fruit blends and aren’t true teas at all).
June 27, 2016
Found at the library. The book is a bit out of date, but there's some useful information there. Not written terribly well...
Tea trivia for me:
Teas to try
Japanese (precious dew) Gyokuro (foremost green tea, shaded by mats for 3 weeks before harvesting
83 tea gardens in Darjeeling. Try Castleton, Namring, Margaret's Hope, Ambootia, Puttabong, or Arya (whose autumn harvest bears the scent of Himalayan Rose)
Chinese Yin Zhen (Silver needles--most precious white tea, harvested only two days of the year)
Chinese Pei Hous, a smooth green tea, gathered once a year--the garden can be reached by trekking on foot for five hours
Chinese Fenghuang Dancong, a semi-fermented Gungdong masterpiece
Chinese Keemun Moafeng (From the Lion's Mountain) black orchid-scented
Chinese Formosa, wonderful Oriental Beauty Oolong
Assam--Dikom Gold, Hattiali, Napuk, Numalighur, and Rungagora--these teas are malty and strong
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
Tea trivia for me:
Teas to try
Japanese (precious dew) Gyokuro (foremost green tea, shaded by mats for 3 weeks before harvesting
83 tea gardens in Darjeeling. Try Castleton, Namring, Margaret's Hope, Ambootia, Puttabong, or Arya (whose autumn harvest bears the scent of Himalayan Rose)
Chinese Yin Zhen (Silver needles--most precious white tea, harvested only two days of the year)
Chinese Pei Hous, a smooth green tea, gathered once a year--the garden can be reached by trekking on foot for five hours
Chinese Fenghuang Dancong, a semi-fermented Gungdong masterpiece
Chinese Keemun Moafeng (From the Lion's Mountain) black orchid-scented
Chinese Formosa, wonderful Oriental Beauty Oolong
Assam--Dikom Gold, Hattiali, Napuk, Numalighur, and Rungagora--these teas are malty and strong
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
January 10, 2013
This is a rather useful introductory guide to tea drinking. Upon reading it, I would have to say that it can also be of use to those tea drinkers who know bits and pieces about tea's history and rituals in different areas of the world and want to brush up on their facts. I am disappointed that there is no specific mention of pu'er tea but I did enjoy that Lapsang Souchong has its own entry.
December 24, 2019
Love tea! This book not so much. For something this short it's alright but I expected more history.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews