any tea info?!?!

i am really looking to get as much info as i can about tea. steeping, history, ect… i went to my local book store and was rather disappointed with the lack of selection they had. i am an old school kinda girl i prefer an actual book to hold and read and all they had was ebooks. any links or books are welcomed i am new and bursting at the seams wanting to know more and more about this wonderful beverage :o)

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Dexter said

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The Harney and Sons Guide to Tea is a great place to start. I recommend reading it somewhat backwards. History and Appendices first, then the sections on each general type of tea.

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AJ said

If you go with any of bellmont’s suggestions, I’d also suggest scrolling down those links to “Also Bought”, because there’s a few gems there as well.

Avoid Tea Sommelier, I found it to be mostly an oversized picture book (it’s got some info, but nothing unique that you couldn’t find in any of the other books listed). Nice to have sitting out for flipping, though.

The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide

Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook is simple, but a nice pocket book.

The Ancient Art of Tea, I’m reading right now and was kinda surprised at it. If you don’t have the money, or are unable to obtain any of the Classics of Tea (which are tricky to find in-print anyways, and you said you wanted to avoid ebooks), this is a little gem that basically takes long passages from many famous tea books and organizes them by topic. So Lu Yu, Tian Yi Heng, Cai Xiang…

The Book of Tea by Okakura Kakuzō, though not directly about tea, is usually considered a classic read for tea enthusiasts.

For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose is another solid starting point, and concerns Robert Fortune’s less than savory dealings in China in order to fund the Indian tea trade.

The Classic of Tea by Lu Yu is probably the most well-known classic, and has a popular translation that’s usually pretty easy to find, by Francis Ross Carpenter

The Tea Dictionary, by James Norwood Prat, isn’t so much a “read” as a solid reference to have on-hand, though it’s about the same price as a university textbook, and will be outdated pretty soon (if it isn’t already; that’s the way dictionaries go in the age of the internet, I fear).

This’ just a list of the ones I know are most easily found. I do keep a longer list on my wordpress.

Unfortunately, you should keep in mind that only “mainstream” tea books will be easily obtainable in print (such as those above, and seen on amazon). Tea textbooks and the like are tricky to find and more easily obtainable as ebooks. Same goes for a lot of the Classics, though some you can usually find for sale on some online used stores like abebooks.

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