Customer Reviews

Tea Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide

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

 

 

This book impressed me. It is easy to read, has a personal feel, and covers all of the basics (what tea is, history, where it is produced, how to brew it, tea tasting, tea ceremonies, etc). Many resources are listed in the back. I have five books on tea so far (a beginner), and this is my favorite. If you only want one book on tea, this is my recommendation. The health section is pretty basic, so if that interests you, you might want to also look at a health-related tea book (green tea). This book describes the general regions, whereas the Tea Companion book describes the individual tea gardens (which may or may not be useful to you.)

I ordered both this book and The Tea Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide by Jane Pettigrew . Though I read this book first, I was most impressed by Tea Companion. Tea Basics seemed to have a bit more depth when talking about the history of tea, but it disappointed me most was the end. I had hoped to learn more about specific types of tea, but instead the author tells how to plan and execute a tea party. Not something I care about in the least and for something that (to me) is so insignificant, I found that too much time was given to the information.

All in all, not a bad book, but you can really do better. Check out Pettigrew's book. I would have been happier just getting that one alone.

To try to prevent my niece from spending all of her time in college going to starb%#ks I recently put together a care package of tea brewer, a few starter books on tea, and some nice loose leaf teas in tins. Going through the recently published books on tea I found this one which is a nice paperback book on tea basics. It has a little filler but covers all of the fundamentals in a concise way, a brief history of camellia sinensis, where it is grown today, grades, types, how the market for tea works, tea vocabulary, some pros/cons on how to brew, and has a nice list of tea resources appended to the back. It even has a good brief description on how to cure a new yixing pot. I like it when a "book on basics" is done well for a topic, and this one is in that category. Not a lot of pretty pictures here... just some good basic information on tea. Throw in Okakura Kakuzo, one of the paperbacks by Diana Rosen and you have yourself a nice present to give someone just starting out with tea. WARNING to tea novices, this stuff is addicting and before you know it you will have an assortment of kettles cups and pots, thermometers, scales, infusers, tins and a dogeared copy of John Blofeld's book. You have been warned.

This is how my mother in law makes tea: she sticks a mug of water in the microwave for a few minutes and then plops a lipton tea baggie in it. And you know what? That's totally fine- I'm hardly a tea snob since I myself grew up drinking Red Rose. By the same token I've also managed a tea cafe/ emporium in Boston where I held regular tastings and classes, and my own mother worked for a tea importer for many years as well. Tea is pretty much in my blood. My MIL always asks me questions about tea when I visit, so for Christmas I thought I'd put together a little kit for her.

The thing about my MIL is, (and this goes for many tea novices) if it's too complicated she will get intimidated and she won't do it. So while I'd love to introduce her to the world of tea, I have to make the process really simple and enjoyable. As simple as microvaved lipton, if possible. So I bought a few bags of premium loose leaf I thought she might like, a pretty Beehouse single cup teapot, and I set out looking for a really basic & appealing book on tea to round out the gift and give her everything she needs to get started.

This book has some nice information on grades of tea, how it is harvested and processed, serving methods & ceremonies, health benefits, etc, except that it feels a little disorganized and there are not many photos. Loose leaf tea is so lovely and photogenic, it seems a waste not to have more pictures of it in a book that's supposed to be for beginners. I flipped though it and read a few chapters and I couldn't find basic brewing instructions ANYWHERE, nor could I find information on the different kinds of tea and their differences. I had hoped that a book called "Tea Basics: A Quick and Easy Guide" would fulfill all the promises of its title and therefore make a great gift, but it sort of failed on all points. Not to say that it's a terrible book for a tea lover, if you don't mind reading it straight through (which I have since done), but it's not much use as a basic guide book or as a gift.

So I'm keeping this one for myself, and instead I ordered Jane Pettigrew's The Tea Companion for my mother in law. Happy brewing!

I absolutely was intrigued by this book, read while sipping a cup of tea. My favorite teas are Republic of Tea, I'd recommend those as well! I liked learning about "TGBOP", Oolong teas, how to brew teas, teas from different countries, etc. I am by no means a tea snob, just a tea lover. This book is great for tea drinkers of any kind.

Simple. Easy To Read. A great introduction to tea! I always recommend this as a foundational read.

This was the first book I ever bought on tea. It seemed appropriate for a beginner and it indeed was a great place to start.

There were recommendations in the book that I wasn't comfortable with at first, like that getting serious about teaware might include acquiring some Yi Xing teapots.

It didn't take long until the opposite was true. Now I'd be uncomfortable if tea weren't elevated as quite important in my life, demanding all the accoutrements that are appropriate to its graces.

The author states that "green tea is the least processed tea". This is wrong, white tea is the least processed of all teas. How is it possible you write a book about the "tea basics" and get this basic fact wrong? I stopped reading after this. This book is a waste of money.