Bibliography

All the Tea in China
Chow, Kit, and Ione Kramer. All the Tea In China. San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, 1990. www.chinabooks.com
This is an important of the foundations work. You will find it listed in the bibliography of most later books. The authors briefly cover almost all areas of Chinese tea and tea culture, including pottery, medicine, history, and preparation. Of particular interest is the section showing The Chinese characters for tea names as well as their pinyin (Mandarin) and Cantonese transliteration.
The Book of Green Tea
Rosen, Diana. The Book of Green Tea. New York: Storey Publishing, 1998.
Rosen’s work is a lightweight survey of the world of green tea. It includes sections on Chinese, Japanese, and Indian traditions. It also spends some effort on describing the health benefits of this beverage.

The Book of Tea
Okakura, Tenshin (Kakuzo). The Book of Tea. Japan: Kodansha International, 2005. www.kodansha-intl.com
Okakura’s masterwork was the first book written by a Japanese tea ceremony practitioner for Western readers. One of the most amazing aspects of the book is the author’s command of the English language, which often exceeds even that of native speakers. The book covers all aspects of the ceremony from philosophy to the purpose and value of ikebana, the art of flower arranging. Do not confuse this with a how-to book. He does not explain the process of preparing a bowl macha, but he does place the event in a historical and cultural context. It is the perfect guide for someone seeking to understand the deeper conversation between the host and his guests in a Japanese tea ceremony.
Many editions can be found by on the web and from other publishers. The Kodansha edition is nice because it is a bilingual version with English on the right hand pages and Japanese on the left.

The Eternal Tree: Searching the Origins of Tea in Yunnan
Horie, Katsuhiko. The Eternal Tree: Searching the Origins of Tea in Yunnan. Tokyo: Toho Shobo Publishers, 1999.
This beautiful coffee table book captures the life cycle of tea in China’s Yunnan Provice. Yunann is the source of some of China’s most famous teas including Puer, Longjing (Dragonwell), and Biluochun. While searching for some of the most ancient living tea trees, Katsuhiko shows us tea fields, processing, and a variety of drinking traditions as practiced in the province. The captions are in both Japanese and English, though some of the translations leave something to be desired.

The French Art of Tea
Mariage Freres. The French Art of Tea. Paris, Mariage Freres, 2004. www.mariagefreres.com
Mariage Freres has been importing tea to France since the mid 19th Century, and this is a glorified catalogue of their offerings. It’s still a valuable source containing history and tea preparation instructions from the French perspective. They carry a wide selection of black and green teas and have added numerous blends and flavored teas.
The book is available in Japanese, English, and French.

A Guide to Tea: A Traveler’s Companion through the World of Tea with Adagio Teas
Chris Cason. A Guide to Tea: A Traveler’s Companion through the World of Tea with Adagio Teas. Adagio Teas. www.adagio.com
Adagio Teas is a U.S. tea importer serving both retail and wholesale markets. This book is an attempt to provide the novice tea drinker with basic information about the common varieties of tea, and basic preparation techniques. Unlike many tea sources, it is not a snooty volume directed at the connoisseur. Rather it includes information about preparing iced tea as well as hot, and ends by saying if you enjoy drinking it, then it’s not wrong.
The photos are good, especially the close up pictures of various loose teas. The information is light, but that’s reasonable as it’s focused on the new tea drinkers. This is also in line with Adagio’s tea offerings. Most of the teas they sell are milder than usual, and are appropriate for those who are nervous about trying new and different teas. My suggestion is don’t buy this book. All of the information it contains is freely available from their website, and you can get a free copy from them with larger orders.

Harney and Sons Guide to Tea
Harney, Michael and Emily Kaiser. The Harney and Sons Guide to Tea. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008.
This book is organized as if it were one long tea tasting. Michael Harney progresses logically from white tea through fifty-six delightful brews before reaching puerh. His goal is to jump-start your skills as a tea taster, and to share his many years of experience and joy in the field. His dense descriptions of each tea cover the key characteristics of the tea as well as some information about its origin or processing. The chapter about chemistry is one of the best I’ve read so far.

The Korean Way of Tea: an Introductory Guide
Brother Anthony of Taize and Hyeong-Hee. The Korean Way of Tea: an Introductory Guide. Seoul: Seoul Selection, 2007. www.seoulselecton.com
This slim volume is one of the few books detailing Korean tea varieties, processing, and preparation. It hints and the cultural roots of Korean tea traditions. The discerning reader will notice the many connections to both Chinese and Japanese practices. Written from a Buddhist point of view, it highlights the role that Buddhists monks played in spreading tea and tea culture throughout Asia.

The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking guide
Heiss, Mary Lou and Robbert J. The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking guide. Berkley: Ten Speed Press, 2007. www.tenspeed.com
This hefty tome is like the textbook for a freshman survey course on tea. The authors attempt to introduce every major concept in tea from every tea producing and drinking region of the world. They manage to lightly cover the following topics: farming, harvesting, processing, industry trends, drinking culture, chemistry, health benefits, history, varieties of tea and tea plants, cooking, and even ethics. With this many topics, it is impossible for them to treat any area with real depth. Interspersed with all of this data, you’ll also find stories and beautiful photos from the authors’ journeys into the heart of tea growing areas. The story of tea is one of the first modern books to attempt to cover all of this material from a Western perspective. If you want to study tea, this is the first book you should dive into.

The Way of Tea: The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking
Lam, Kam Chuen, et al. The Way of Tea: The Sublime Art of Oriental Tea Drinking. New York: Barron’s, 2002. www.barronseduc.com
This large format book includes a large amount of historical information. It is almost entirely from a Chinese perspective, but it covers historical methods of production and processing as well as current methods. The second half of the work covers tea preparation and the health benefits of Chinese teas. This is a great book if you are looking for an introduction to Chinese teas or Chinese tea history.

Yixing Pottery: The World of Chinese Tea Culture
Pan, Chunfang. Yixing Pottery: The World of Chinese Tea Culture. San Francisco: Long River Press, 2004. www.longriverpress.com
This is a great introduction to the world-renowned Chinese purple clay tea ware. Occasionally the text suffers from the kinds of mistakes common to works translated from Chinese, but is otherwise quite readable. The photographs are at times even more valuable than the text. It is amazing to see tea ware that looks ultra-modern, only to read that it is two hundred years old. Pan connects the rise in popularity of Yixing tea ware in China to a rise in number of civil servants trained in literary traditions. While I cannot possibly remember all of the names of master potters or tea masters presented, the information about the history and manufacture of purple clay tea ware is well worth reading.