Customer Reviews

A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea

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2 star:		(1)
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I read this book when it first came out, and I really loved it. I still refer to the facts I learned within; just last week I was explaining Lapsang Souchong to an Irishman. I was left feeling that I knew Mr. Goodwin, and contemplated finding him and making him my husband, primarily so we could travel together.

This book is WONDERFUL! Be forewarned, however: you WILL begin to guzzle litre after litre of tea during the reading of this book. Mr. Goodwin gives an absolutely wonderful first-person account of his often hilarious travels investigating the tea trade, from its' beginnings in Canton to the present day. A MUST for anyone who loves tea - and I'd rate Mr. Goodwin's writing style on a par with Pico Iyer's. A good read, full of humour and information...

Goodwin takes us on a journey of exploration, history, geography, social life and tea-drinking in all the right places. I've been a full-time tea-drinker since I was weaned as a baby in the UK and have learned more about tea from this book than I ever thought I wanted or needed to know. The author writes in such a way that the whole book and his journey, become a live instruction in the countries, lives and producers of tea, while making it all so pleasurable that one hardly thinks of the lessons being imparted at the same time as participating in his adventures.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in tea, whether as a beverage of choice, a lesson in the economics or social and cultural studies of the indigenous populations of the tea-producing countries...or just for the fun of it all.

A Time for Tea: Travels through China and India in search of tea
Jason Goodwin, 1991

Where's the Tea? 2*

I enjoyed one of Jason Goodwin's more recent books, 2006's mystery novel "The Janissary Tree," even giving it a 5* review. A little dry in the writing, perhaps, but with interestingly presented historical background, sort of a travelogue to a different time as well as place. So I was primed to enjoy Goodwin's 1991 actual travel book, especially since I am a tea enthusiast of long standing and it is subtitled "... in search of tea." It is hard to come across good information not filtered through merchants' catalogs and websites, and I was looking for some boots on the ground reporting on how the teas are grown, manufactured and enjoyed in these major tea growing regions, and some good information on the teas themselves and their varieties.

Sadly, I am frankly puzzled by the previous Amazon reviews of this book. I'm at page 125 (out of 272) and have just encountered the first substantive mention of tea ... and it's not the author's own experience of tea, or new information that he has uncovered about tea, but extracts from the collection of aging references he just now tells us he has been carrying around with him.

And this is another problem I have with the book -- it's almost half way through that we find Goodwin has actually done some prior research, possibly extensive, on the subject. Up until now it seemed that he had simply inhaled a typical Brit's knowledge of tea along with his mother's stewed cuppa, and set off as a classic Innocent, a blank slate in search of illumination. Similarly, it is also nearly half way through that we find he reads and writes Chinese and speaks one dialect (though he doesn't mention which), almost as an aside when he is describing how speakers of mutually unintelligible dialects can still communicate in written Chinese (which is why, incidentally, Chinese movies often have Chinese subtitles).

I'm not even that interested in the tea trade per se, especially the trade of centuries gone by (though I'm sure the subject has its own fascination), but the tea itself. Unfortunately, the historical tea trade seems to be what the author is keenest on, the minutae of the grading systems of centuries gone by (and not actually telling us how the teas were graded, but merely standing in awe of the number of potentially distinguishable grades), rather than distractions such as what the bloody brew tastes like. I get no feel for the actual experience of drinking, tasting, tea until the very end of his travels, on p. 255, where he describes the tasting of a fine Darjeeling.

OK, so it's not primarily a book about tea, but how accurate and deep is the odd spot of actual information about tea itself? Following the comment of a previous reviewer, I looked up Lapsang Souchong in the index, and before even getting to the Lapsang specifics in the referenced pages found this: "Grading tea [into uniform sizes by sieving] is done partly to improve the appearance ... and partly to offer a range of liquoring speeds: the smaller the leaf , the quicker it brews." (p.166) Well, appearance is a matter of aesthetics, and finer leaf teas do brew more quickly, but it's not as if there's a huge demand for 2 minute vs. 4 minute brewing cycles. Rather, having tea of uniform leaf size ensures that it brews evenly, that fine particles don't overbrew before the coarser leaves release their flavor. And the Lapsang specifics a bit later consisted of the astounding revelation that it is indeed smoked (after "fermentation", actually oxidation, a process common to all black teas). I wonder what the heck the reviewer told her Irishman that is not common knowledge? Much of the other information he provides (mostly culled from his traveling library) is questionable, incomplete, or at least no longer applicable. These from pp. 123-125:
-- "We [westerners] judge [tea] by the colour of the dry leaf, rather than the colour of the liquor in the cup. Some teas we would call green give 'red' liquors." Maybe true of centuries gone by, but the black / green divide these days seems entirely based on fermentation (oxidation) or lack thereof, not leaf color. "Black" Darjeelings are often (where appropriate) described as having a green leaf. I have never heard of a "green" tea with a red liquor. Maybe he's thinking of the Chinese description of what we would call "black" tea as "red" tea, based on the color of the infusion of at last some black/red teas.
-- He describes gunpowder tea but doesn't mention why the leaves are rolled tightly (to preserve freshness).
-- "Formosa Oolongs are more black than green." Actually Taiwan (Formosa) produces a full range of "fermentations" (oxidations). The "greener," lightly fermented, varieties appear to be more popular there, although the typical export "Formosa Oolong" is the more oxidized version.

The author does provide an interesting description of tea manufacture in Darjeeling, at least some from first hand observation (pp. 217-219) and of the various seasons of Darj teas (219-222), first and second flushes, autumnal teas (though I would not agree with his source's characterization of first flush teas as inferior -- I've found myself favoring them as my appreciation of Darjeeling increases). But by now we're a bit gun shy. How much is unique to the estate he visited, how much common practice throughout? (And what about the green and oolong Darjeelings, admittedly uncommon?) How much, perhaps, even gleaned from Colonel Money's famous 1877 essay "Cultivation of Tea" which he references?

In summary, if you hope to learn a book's-worth about tea itself, or how it is grown and processed, you will probably be disappointed, as I was. I did skim and sample the rest of the book as well, and there's just not that much tea there.

But to be fair, A Time for Tea is also billed as "Travels through India and China ..," so how does it stack up as simply a travel book? Alas, it's not a style I'm particularly fond of. The language and attitude are quintessentially Brit, and it mixes an odd assortment of historical, cultural and geograpical factoids and opinions with his actual experiences and observations. And somehow his initial hiding -- or should we just say de-emphasis? -- of his preparation, research and linguistic skills seems a cheat, or at least gives a wrong impression of his expedition. Perhaps it's that I was looking for something else, but even as a travel book it doesn't grab me, although from my sampling it does pick up in the India section. Your mileage may vary.