Archive
Archive for the ‘books’ Category
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May 2nd, 2009
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Lydia Gautier’s “Tea: Exotic Flavors and Aromas” is the National Geographic of all tea books! It is suitable for any coffee (TEA) table in the world, whether in the breakfast nook of a cottage on Martha’s Vineyard or resting on a foyer table in a manor home in England’s Hertfordshire.
The black and white photographs interspersed with the vividly colored pictures are breathtakingly beautiful – thanks to photographer Jean-Francois Mallet’s good eye for subject matter. Paired with Ms. Gautier’s informative text, tea aficionados will find the visual impact and written word riveting. Non-tea drinkers will find the historical and cultural details seductively interesting as well.
The book is quite large, which does the author and photographer justice. Mr. Mallet’s close-ups are exquisite – real works of art. You won’t need a looking glass to examine the details of the pictures, as the publisher generously gave full two-page spreads to the photographs that could not be contained on a single leaf. Who knew the curled and rolled buds of the Camellia sinensis bush could make such a captivating still life?
Go ahead. Splurge. This book is a must-have for your collection. You will enjoy many cups of tea looking over this masterful volume.
5 stars.
books, review
books, reviews
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April 29th, 2009
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This tea book
is pretty, but not that exciting. Despite its attractive photos the volume falls short – not so much because there is anything innately “wrong” with it, but rather because it pales in comparison to its competitors in the tea book niche.
It’s not a comprehensive almanac of tea trivia and it’s not a tea table book with breathtaking photos. Because of its title, “Having Tea: Recipes and Table Settings,” you might expect a book that flaunts its tablescapes – real innovative table displays or traditional settings done right with exquisite pottery, linens, utensils and themes. But instead, you are left feeling rather ho-hum, disappointed that there is very little inspiration for new décor ideas for the up-and-coming tea society season.
It’s almost like “Having Tea” went to press before it was finished. Did the deadline arrive and the publisher say, “That’s good enough”? With just a little more research, Ms. Foley could have seen what her fellow tea book authors were up to and tried to address the deficits. The recipes were run-of-the-mill for the most part. In this day of global accessibility and a plethora of communication devices, surely Ms. Foley could have tapped her resources and gotten some recipes to pique the interest of her tea savvy readers. It was not a bad book, just uninspiring.
3 Stars
books, review
books, review
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April 26th, 2009
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“The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea” by master tea blender Michael Harney is suitable for the hard-core tea merchant, as a reference book for a culinary professor, or for the tea connoisseur whose hobby borders on a fetish.
The book does not bother itself with pretty pictures of lovely Victorian tea sets, but instead focuses on the analytical facets of tea: the best environment for growing Camellia sinensis, the ideal time and temperature for brewing a particular type of tea, what the dry leaves or tea buds look like, how the liquor appears when it is made properly, and what to expect from the tea’s aroma. For example, Mr. Harney describes one of China’s most famous black teas, Keemum Mao Fengke, as having hints of “light notes of chocolate or cocoa with the suggestion of ripe apricots.”
Such a book would be helpful if you ever participate in a tea tasting or food pairing or are trying to train your palate to detect the nuances of different teas. The volume dispenses trivia as well that would be of interest to tea buffs and Trivial Pursuit or Jeopardy game show addicts. On the back cover, Mr. Harney writes:
“You can’t judge a tea by its name: Consider Orange Pekoe. “Orange’ stands for the Dutch Royal House of Orange and once indicated tea of a quality suitable for its monarchs. ‘Pekoe’ is a mispronunciation of the Chinese words ‘bai hao’ – bai meaning white and hao meaning tippy or downy. ‘Pekoe’ may have once meant tippy tea, but the ancient word has long since lost its original meaning.”
The book is probably not for the general population, but is ideal for those have raised the bar on their relationship with tea.
4½ stars.
books, review
book review, books, review
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October 21st, 2008
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Found some interesting info today. The author of the Harry Potter books, JK Rowling, is hosting a tea party with city school children to promote her latest book – The Tales of Beedle the Bard
.
The reading is being held in the National Library of Scotland and plenty of tea shall be on hand!
Read more at The Scotsman…
art, books, facts, news
authors, books
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August 29th, 2008
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George Orwell on Tea
This is a truly awesome piece of writing by one of England’s greatest authors. George Orwell is more famed for his dystopian epic 1984 but he also wrote in one of his many essays a discourse on the subject of tea.
I’ve copied the full extract from his book below for you all to read:
If you look up ‘tea’ in the first cookery book that comes to hand you will probably find that it is unmentioned; or at most you will find a few lines of sketchy instructions which give no ruling on several of the most important points.This is curious, not only because tea is one of the main stays of civilization in this country, as well as in Eire, Australia and New Zealand, but because the best manner of making it is the subject of violent disputes.
When I look through my own recipe for the perfect cup of tea, I find no fewer than eleven outstanding points. On perhaps two of them there would be pretty
general agreement, but at least four others are acutely controversial. Here
are my own eleven rules, every one of which I regard as golden:
- First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea.
- Secondly, tea should be made in small quantities — that is, in a teapot. Tea out of an urn is always tasteless, while army tea, made in a cauldron, tastes of grease and whitewash. The teapot should be made of china or earthenware. Silver or Britanniaware teapots produce inferior tea and enamel pots are worse; though curiously enough a pewter teapot (a rarity nowadays) is not so bad.
- Thirdly, the pot should be warmed beforehand. This is better done by placing it on the hob than by the usual method of swilling it out with hot water.
- Fourthly, the tea should be strong. For a pot holding a quart, if you are going to fill it nearly to the brim, six heaped teaspoons would be about right. In a time of rationing, this is not an idea that can be realized on every day of the week, but I maintain that one strong cup of tea is better than twenty weak ones. All true tea lovers not only like their tea strong, but like it a little stronger with each year that passes — a fact which is
recognized in the extra ration issued to old-age pensioners.
- Fifthly, the tea should be put straight into the pot. No strainers, muslin bags or other devices to imprison the tea. In some countries teapots are fitted with little dangling baskets under the spout to catch the stray leaves, which are supposed to be harmful. Actually one can swallow tea-leaves in considerable quantities without ill effect, and if the tea is not loose in the pot it never infuses properly.
- Sixthly, one should take the teapot to the kettle and not the other way about. The water should be actually boiling at the moment of impact, which means that one should keep it on the flame while one pours. Some people add that one should only use water that has been freshly brought to the boil, but I have never noticed that it makes any difference.
- Seventhly, after making the tea, one should stir it, or better, give the pot a good shake, afterwards allowing the leaves to settle.
- Eighthly, one should drink out of a good breakfast cup — that is, the cylindrical type of cup, not the flat, shallow type. The breakfast cup holds more, and with the other kind one’s tea is always half cold before one has well started on it.
- Ninthly, one should pour the cream off the milk before using it for tea. Milk that is too creamy always gives tea a sickly taste.
- Tenthly, one should pour tea into the cup first. This is one of the most controversial points of all; indeed in every family in Britain there are probably two schools of thought on the subject. The milk-first school can bring forward some fairly strong arguments, but I maintain that my own argument is unanswerable. This is that, by putting the tea in first and stirring as one pours, one can exactly regulate the amount of milk whereas one is liable to put in too much milk if one does it the other way round.
- Lastly, tea — unless one is drinking it in the Russian style — should be drunk without sugar. I know very well that I am in a minority here. But still, how can you call yourself a true tealover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt. Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant
to be bitter. If you sweeten it, you are no longer tasting the tea, you are merely tasting the sugar; you could make a very similar drink by dissolving sugar in plain hot water.Some people would answer that they don’t like tea in itself, that they only drink it in order to be warmed and stimulated, and they need sugar to take the taste away. To those misguided people I would say: Try drinking tea without sugar for, say, a fortnight and it is very unlikely that you will ever want to ruin your tea by sweetening it again.
These are not the only controversial points to arise in connexion with tea drinking, but they are sufficient to show how subtilized the whole business has become. There is also the mysterious social etiquette surrounding the teapot (why is it considered vulgar to drink out of your saucer, for instance?) and much might be written about the subsidiary uses of tealeaves, such as telling
fortunes, predicting the arrival of visitors, feeding rabbits, healing burns and sweeping the carpet. It is worth paying attention to such details as warming the pot and using water that is really boiling, so as to make quite sure of wringing out of one’s ration the twenty good, strong cups of that two ounces, properly handled, ought to represent.
- Taken from The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Volume 3, 1943-45
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art, authors, news, Places, tea
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October 2nd, 2005
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The tea and biscuit lovers bible is now available in papaerback form. It provides a raft of information on tea, drinking, biscuits and even suggests a formula for making tea.
T3MW
Do you know what this means?
Immature tea drinker!!
I posted about the original hardback edition in Febuary – which I have a signed copy of!
You can grab your paperback copy from Amazon: Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down
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books
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February 17th, 2005
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I recently bought this book from the local Ottakers store and I can safely say it is THE definitive book on the subject of sitting down, having a nice cup of tea and possibly a biscuit. The authors; Nicey and Wifey have managed to fill the book with pages upon pages of facts and information on the subject we all love. The biscuit section provides classifications reviews and history of some of the best known and even little known biscuits of the world. Want a history of the Bourbon? Its right there. How about some information on the Wagon Wheel? That’s there too.
Not only biscuits are discussed but subjects as diverse as “Tea in Public”, “Work Tea Making” and the science of dunking!
I recommend this book to not just people of tea but to EVERYONE in society today for it offers truth and honest discourse that will improve your life.
The authors website is available here: Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down
books, life, review
books, review
