Customer Reviews

Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This study of tea is a fine example of why so many people love history. Beatrice Hohenegger has taken something people use every day but rarely give more than a passing thought to and traced its history back thousands of years, encountering many strange byways and interconnections which link it to a much larger story. This, not the stereotypical long dry lists of battles and kings some unfortunates associate with the subject, is what makes history fascinating.

Liquid Jade is divided into four segments. In the first Hohenegger studies the origins of tea drinking in East Asia, describing the many legends of how tea first became the indispensable drink of the aristocracy and then the general population. I laughed at the stories of tea being picked by specially trained monkeys and by young girls deprived of spicy foods lest they contaminate the plants' aroma, and I was intrigued to read of tea's connections to the development of Buddhism (particularly Zen), Confucianism, and Daoism.

The second segment is devoted to tea's arrival in the West. Here we see the Europeans being introduced to and falling in love with tea, with a few unhappy missteps (A Portuguese woman boiled some tea leaves, threw away the water, and served the leaves to her unfortunate guests!) Once again Hohenegger does a fine job linking tea to the larger historic picture, identifying connections to the development of imperialism and colonization, and to the crazes for porcelain and opium.

In the third part Hohenegger providews a miscellany of details and trivia about tea, including the invention of tea-bags and iced tea, the ongoing controversy between those who advocate MIF or TIF, and the class differences between High and Low tea. I enjoyed this part best just because of the variety and scope of the information. Finally, in the fourth part Hohenegger examines tea and tea production today, describing the impact of terrorism in some tea growing areas, the role of environmentalism, and continuing concerns for the plight of tea workers.

Hohenegger writes with great detail and a light touch of humor now and then. Her scholarship is impeccable and made approachable by her fine writing style and dry wit. I hope we see more from her in the future.

Beatrice Hohenegger has written history of the tea trade between Asia and the West that is well researched and scholarly, but reads, at times, like an adventure novel complete with a Scottish spy. She goes to the roots of what we now call globalization, and exposes it's truly dark practices, as the East India Company establishes the first global corporate business model. What she is able to do, quite effectively, is move the history, that most of people view in a detached, it happen long time ago way, and place in squarely in our 21st century tea cabinets. She reminds us that before there was oil dominating geopolitical dynamics, there was tea and opium. Still, tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world next to water and be with use long after the oil drys up.

It is clear to see that she has discovered the sense of wonder and adventure that has entranced tea devotees for thousands of years, inspired great philosophers and poets, motivated great crimes and wars, and helped to shape the scope history of the world for the last five hundred years. She does a good job of passing that on to the reader. She passes on the roots of tragedy, fueled by hubris and greed, that brought down the last Chinese Dynasty, and created the sundown for the British Empire, all for a cup of tea.

She also offers some solutions that point us to a future of global sustainability, in the case of tea, fair trade, organics, quality, and business integrity. It would seem that in her discovery of tea, she has also come to care for and be an advocate for the poor country people that have suffered and continue to suffer from the tea trades bitter cruelty. She does so with a writing skill that keeps you turning pages, without becoming heavy handed or preachy .

It is surprising that most people of have such limited understanding of the historical significance of tea, but that will surely change after reading Liquid Jade. I have often been frustrated by the lack of good tea literature about tea in English, but we can hope that Beatrice Hohenegger's hard work will raise the standards for future books on tea and tea culture. Reading her book may start that tea adventure for you, or if you already on that road add to your experience.

Austin Hodge

President

Seven Cups Tea

[...]

I spent 23 years on tea plantations since 1974. I started my tea trading business in 1998 after leaving plantations. Then I started my tea books library after seeing a very large volume of tea literature in China, which I started visiting regularly since 2004.

This book is the best one I have seen which narrates the world transition of tea scene in the most lucid way.

I once went to a basic lecture about tea, which inspired an interest beyond merely drinking the beverage. Before I read this book, however, I had no idea how rich of a history was involved. It concerned more than tranquil tea ceremonies in Japan or fancy tea parties for British aristocracy. There was also a darker side including drug trade, espionage, revolution (such as our own Boston tea party), violence, and exploitation of laborers. It is a fascinating mix of socio-political developments -- some glorious, some shameful. And in the process, I was also learning some interesting facts about world history.

Fear not, this book does not neglect practical matters such as how much caffeine is in tea, what kind of water to use, or should one put milk in first or tea in first.

Hohenegger tells it all in a style which will amaze you, make you laugh, and sometimes sadden you. You'll never look at tea in quite the same way again after reading this book.

The book was so engaging that i would look forward to come home from work and begin reading. It was interesting to learn that such a readily available drink could have affected dramatically the history of different countries. The author shed light on subjects that most of us are not aware of, such as how different cultures prepare their tea, and tea labor issues. The book contained so much information that i have begun to read it again.

This may sound funny to those who are not "into" tea, but I simply couldn't put this book down until I had devoured it cover to cover. Being a tea dealer, I have read many books about tea, heard many stories in the last 10 years and have gleaned lots of info. But since reading this book, my tea classes have gotten even more interesting for my students and myself.

Get it, you'll like it. If not for yourself, get it for a tea loving pal.

Tea! Thou soft, thou sober, sage and venerable liquid, thou innocent pretence for bringing the wicked both sexes together in a morning; thou female tongue stunning, smile-smoothing, heart-opening, wink-tipping cordial, to whose glorious insipidity I owe the happiest moment of my life, let me fall prostrate thus, and -- adore thee. Colley Cibber, The Lady's Last Stake, an eighteenth century play

I freely admit it, I'm addicted to tea. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, I'm nearly always in the mood for a cup of fresh brewed tea. I've built up a stash of good tea, stored in colourful tins and boxes, assembled a decent collection of teaware and implements to brew, sip and serve tea in, and have amassed a small library's worth of books filled with the history and lore of tea and what to serve with it. The problem is, now like an addled crack addict, I can never quite be satisfied -- there's always a new blend to be tried, more exotic pluckings from distant lands with names that evoke mystery. In short, I have found a hobby that will always fascinate me.

When I found this on a recent book-buying binge, I thought here we go again, yet another babbling about tea. And in the fond hope of finding something new, I started plodding my way through the narrative. Author Beatrice Hohenegger takes the usual route, starting with the mythic origins of tea, when a Chinese emperor was taking a rest on a journey, waiting for the bowl of boiling water to cool down enough to drink -- he insisted that water be boiled for health's sake -- and a leaf from a nearby plant fell into the water. The rest, as they say, is history. Quickly, cha as the resulting liquid became known as, was touted as a miraculous plant, good for meditation, curing stomach ills, extending life, and in general, becoming a valuable and much sought after commodity. For centuries, tea was turned into money, the quality of the water to brew it debated over, plucked by gloved virgins in private plantations reserved for the Emperor's use, and turned into the varieties that we know today -- black, oolongs, pu-erh, green and white teas.

Then the Portugese and the Dutch and the English showed up, and in the seventeenth century, tea made its first impact on Europe, and by extension, the Americas. Night-owls embraced it, fashionistas set trends, and most importantly, governments taxed it as a ready cash cow for when funds got low. Problem was, people liked it too much to give it up, and when the taxes got too high, smuggling set in, along with inventive ways to make tea 'stretch' a bit by mixing in various substances that were both dangerous, and sometimes poisonous to the customer. Eventually, some standards came about, and the big monopolies that controlled importation of tea from China were broken up.

And now comes the tricky part -- Hohenegger doesn't just settle for the history of tea, but how tea has affected the world. The problem hit when China, being the only real producer of tea, insisted that payment be made in cold, hard silver for tea, silks and the other luxury goods that the West was craving. Thing was, the British simply couldn't come up with enough to pay -- so they found something else that the Chinese wanted -- opium. Cheap opium from India, and the Chinese were more than happy to pay whatever was asked, with the end result that the economy crashed and the government stepped in and what was known as the Opium wars started up. And it wasn't the only problem that tea had created -- there was the need to sweeten that tea that the Europeans liked, and the best sugar came from the West Indies, creating a crisis with slavery.

Fighting the Opium wars taught the English one thing -- they needed to find another source for tea. A cheap place, with cheap labour -- why not India? And in the nineteenth century, after China firmly kicked out the opium traders, tea plantations started up in Assam, Darjeeling, Nilgiri and other prime spots. Now nearly all of the tea that is drunk is grown in India, and in that jewel, Sri Lanka, or as it was known, Ceylon. New problems have arisen in the modern age as well, and Hohenegger raises the question of what is known as 'fair-trade practices.'

She doesn't stop there as well. Later parts of the book look at things such as the creation of porcelain to drink tea in, how tea is graded and what is really that stuff in those tea-bags (shudder) in the supermarket? Answer -- you really don't want to know. The ongoing revolution in the US about loose-leaf teas, and the ever-growing market for what I think of as the 'good stuff.' The funniest chapter has to be the MIF vs TIF range war -- what goes in first, the tea or the milk?

Hohenegger's writing is amusing, provocative and first rate. What I really enjoyed was the fact that she didn't take the subject so seriously that she didn't mind plunking down a joke or pun into the text. While the chapters are alas, very small -- not much more than several pages in length -- they're jammed with all sorts of information, and it makes for a satisfying read. There is some tedium when she goes on about how workers, especially women, are still being exploited, and kept at the bottom of the tea-production ladder, it also refrains from getting too preachy about it either.

Black and white illustrations and line drawings are throughout the text, and each chapter is opened by a quote that deals with some aspect of tea. While the illustrations are rather poor in quality, they are interesting, and it was a pity that the clarity was sacrificed -- I would that they had been reproduced on photographic paper and presented as an insert rather than littered throughout the text.

Two appendices go into the backgrounds of Chinese and Japanese chronology and the two systems of transliteration of Chinese names and terms -- Wade-Giles vs Pin-Yin. The notes are extensive and very detailed, as well as a bibliography for future reading, and an index for those who want to zero in on a particular aspect of tea.

I was happy that I took the time for this work. It was insightful, took the broad view, didn't romanticise anything, and was brave enough to point fingers. I got to rediscover some things I didn't know about my favorite beverage, and I hope to see more work by Hohenegger in the future. This gets a solid four stars from me.

Recommended

I'm an avid tea person, have been known to pay $5 a gram for good tea, and have read every book I could find on the subject. I have also purchased every tea book I could find and afford (the seminal 1930 two-volume work "All About Tea" by W. Ukers is available for $1000 or more but I'm, ahem, still saving up).

Tea histories written for consumers in the west necessarily follow the same general format, starting with the development of tea in ancient China with side trips to Japan and India and the interactions of all three countries with European traders and so on. This book is exceptional in that the author has an outstanding ability to both understand the Eastern cultures and to convey their meanings, including of course their tea cultures, to modern readers. This book has impressed me more than any other book I've read on the subject and, as the saying goes, if I had to start over and own or read only one book about tea, this is the one I would pick for myself. The author is to be congratulated- and thanked, even.

I finished this book, but only through sheer determination because I am very interested in the subject. The information is definitely there--in one very simple declarative sentence after another. It reads more like bullet points than a narrative. No ramblings or musings here; just the facts presented in bare bones fashion by someone who does very little writing and does not know how to bring history to life. I much preferred "For All the Tea in China" by Sarah Rose. That book covered only a tiny piece of the history presented in "Liquid Jade" but it has a strong narrative drive that left me wanting to know more. That is why I ordered Liquid Jade and was very excited to read it, but that didn't last long. Perhaps the entire history of tea is just too much to cover in one book without making it dreadfully dry.

For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History

I really enjoyed this book.I liked the short chapters because I read before I fall asleep and this was like a little sip of something interesting. Though the history is not always peaceful, the tone is peaceful and like all good histories it told me of things i didn't know I wanted to know until it was told so well.