All the Tea in China

All the Tea in China by Kit Chow and Ione Kramer, 1990, China Books and Periodicals, Inc.

I have been drinking tea for many years. As a child I drunk instant tea and bagged tea, but as an adult I was introduced to loose tea, and then whole leaf tea. Over the last few years I have been seeking out different kinds of tea, and enjoying learning about the different areas that teas are grown and how the different ways of preparation create the different types of tea. There isn't a lot of useful literature on the subject in America, though, so I was happy when I found this book, and I even learned some things that were new to me.

As one could guess from the title, this book is focused on Chinese teas, but it still provides a good base of information on tea in general. Outside of a large discussion of the history of tea and China, there are discussions of the tea growing regions in India and the tea history of Japan, including a very useful overview of the famous Japanese tea ceremony. There are discussions of the purpoted health benefits of tea, information on historic tea tools, and other related bits. The book does not go into significant depth on most topics (a discussion of 50 famous Chinese teas being the exception), but it does provide a solid overview of tea for those who lack a basic understanding of its cultural importance in East Asia and how to prepare it.

My only issue with this book is the way it is written. It almost feels like each chapter was written separately, maybe as a magazine or journal article originally, and then stuck into the book without proper editing. For example, information late in one chapter will be repeated, almost verbatim, early in the next, as if the authors don't realize that they just told us that exact same thing 3 pages ago. Odd. Other than that, though, this book is a fine starting point for learning about the wonders of tea.

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