Author: AJ

Book: The Philosophy of Tea

26/01/2022 / / 0 Comments

This is part of a series of “Philosophy Of” books. I had trouble finding much on the ‘series’, but it looks like each (or most) was written by a different blogger or other influencer/social media presence. I mostly ended up poking around Brian Williams (the author of Philosophy of Coffee)’s blog trying to get a bit more info on the series’ inception.

Gebely’s well known for his other book, Tea: A User’s Guide. It’s a book I own and have read, but not quite cover-to-cover, and haven’t made a post about here quite yet.

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Book: How to Make Tea

20/11/2021 / / 0 Comments

I thought this was a handsome little book, and was immediately drawn to it in Chapters when it released. Flipping through it, I thought the illustrations were unique, I thought the Table of Contents was very straightforward, and it seemed like it covered all of the basics while leaning away from that more ‘health benefit/herbal tea’ push. I was drawn in by the ‘Science Behind the Leaf’ aspect, and was looking forward to reading the ‘Tea Chemistry’ section.

I had high hopes for it, but as usual, it went onto my “To Read Tea Shelf” behind all of my other acquisitions for a few years.

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Book: A Brief History of Tea

15/09/2021 / / 0 Comments

This is an oldy but a goody, first published in 2003, and an easy, affordable buy at most bookstores back in the day (I think I paid $5 for this off of the clearance pile at Chapter’s).

Moxham has written a few books on history, largely focusing on India, and two on tea: “A Brief History of Tea” and “Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire”. Moxham himself worked as a tea planter in Africa, and the book opens and closes with his own account of his first few years settling as a tea planter, having no previous experience. He manages an estate, learns the language, and recounts the conditions his workers faced. Continue reading

Books to Look Forward to in 2021

07/02/2021 / / 0 Comments

I look forward to new releases, even if the sad reality is I only manage to read a couple of Tea Books a year–and usually half a decade after they’ve been published. But that doesn’t mean I can’t share what I’m looking forward to getting my hands on.

These are just a couple of the books that are slated to be published in 2021. There’s a lot of cooking, photo, and ‘mini guide’ books to slog through to find the gems, but after a lot of digging, I’ve started my ‘pre-order list’ for 2021. We’ll see what else crops up as the year progresses.

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Book: A Thirst for Empire

10/01/2021 / / 1 Comment

This is a heavy book that I have had my eye on for a while. Most new books I’ll wait for in the library, depending on the price. This one was constantly on hold before the quarantine, and finally cleared up when I went to return the Stonewares of Yixing.

A Thirst for Empire reads a bit dry, and unfortunately even with ample time in quarantine (well, maybe not that much–I’m still working), I couldn’t finish it before my library “renews”  ran out. It’s a bit of a slog, not really intending to weave an entertaining narrative. It’s an essay foremost and that works a bit to it’s detriment as it opens with the classic Objectives of “in this work I will prove…” Which isn’t a knock on the work, just what kind of book it is. Continue reading

Book: The Stonewares of Yixing

24/08/2020 / / 2 Comments

I love this book. It’s presented in an oversized coffee table-style layout, with plates of colour and grey-scale photos from museums. But it also contains a textbook level of information, going into detail about the evolution of manufacture and style of teapots through the years, listing major contributing potters to each era, and showing copious examples of each’s work.

But here’s the story. I checked this out a little before COVID19 forced libraries to close, back in the end of January. It’s August as I finish typing this. Can’t say I’m complaining, and it’s given me time to take some seriously detailed notes. Libraries are finally opening up, and the book has a due date September 1st, roughly half a year later.

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Tea in Quarantine

24/05/2020 / / 6 Comments

In 1939 the British government expected airstrikes from Germany. So they devised a slogan to keep up civilian moral: Keep Calm and Carry On. There were signs and posters designed for the slogan to be hung in shop windows, but they never quite made it to fruition. They survived the Blitz without them, the Brits seen as stalwart in the face of danger, stuck in their routines. I remember the stories of people returning to work in half-destroyed buildings, or setting up just outside. Continue reading

VTF 2020

12/04/2020 / / 0 Comments

The best thing about this entire self-quarantine is that all checkout times from the library have been greatly extended and I rarely leave my apartment anyways, so I’m hoarding these books.

So the Festival skipped a year and moved from winter to spring, bringing it more inline with over tea festivals. And, I assume, making it a bit more accessible to companies and attendees. The venue switched too, and as much as I liked the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens, the Nikkei Cultural Centre still offered a picturesque view, a small garden and some solid dining options for when you need something over than tea in your system.

Now, I did something a little crazy this year and signed up to present. I was offered a tasting slot as well, but ended up declining… My anxiety-stricken mind can only handle one major event at a time. Continue reading

Book: Tea. T, Eden

14/03/2020 / / 2 Comments

I picked this up from the public library. Unfortunately the last person to have it decided to write in it with a black felt pen of all things. And I know it was recent because in the margins where they decided to jot swaths of notes down, they went back and blanked it out with white-out tape of all things. As if that made it better.

I cannot fathom some people.

With that mini-rant out of the way, Dr. Thomas Eden was (is?) the former director of the Tea Research Institute of East Africa. His works are those you’ll find alongside Denys Forrest’s, C.R. Harler’s and William Ukers’. Contemporaries spread out across Sri Lanka, India and Africa, they frequently reference each others’ research. Continue reading

Book: Chinese Tea Culture

15/01/2020 / / 0 Comments

I found this one poking around a used bookstore (in about… 2017? 2016? I’m behind). It’s a slim, unassuming volume, and I picked it up with a few others after flipping through it. I was struck by the Table of Contents, the quick glance I took through it, and the inclusion of book plates at the beginning; several colourful photos of historic tea pots, bowls, and paintings.

I started reading it a while ago–put it down thinking I’d finished it, and then when I picked it up again to review, realized I still had a bookmark at about the halfway mark. So I ended up rereading it anyhow (it’s 154 pages, and pretty engrossing). Before I even finished it, I’d recommended it to at least one person who was looking for information on the history of Chinese tea culture, specifically the time-period that would have influenced the development into chanoyu in Japan. Continue reading