The Tea Drinker's Handbook

There are just so many things that are great about this book compared to all the others on my shelf.The most important is that (contrary to many others) the book is extremely well edited and thought out. This makes a huge difference. First, the book contains almost no fluff. It's all essential information, including much that is not available in any of the other books I've read. Even better, the thought put into structure and sharpness also makes the information much easier to digest and absorb.The final polish is that (again contrary to many other books on tea) all the information is accurate. And if seldom the authors don't delve into all the details, they still manage to stay away from generalizations. For a novice reader, this is extremely important. I've seen too many people get the wrong impression on some aspect of tea just because a tea book without sufficient attention to detail printed information pertaining for example only to a particular type of tea from a particular country as pertaining to the same tea from all sources.To top it all off, even the pictures are great. Not only do they match the topic, they go above and beyond, giving additional information or a counterpoint to the text they accompany.The content of the book is summarized as follows (shown because Amazon currently doesn't show the table of contents):What is tea?- 10 pages on the bush in general: form, the varieties sinensis, assamica and cambodiensis, the concept of a cultivar, wild and ancient tea trees- 19 pages on tea cultivation: production areas and the requirements for success, propagation by seed versus cloning by cuttings, the lifespan of a tea tree, organic farming- 12 pages on plucking and the various social and labor systems existent in plantations around the world, a table discussing how many shoots have to be picked for each quality class of tea, discussion on fair trade tea- 20 pages on processing tea into the different typesTasting- 15 pages on the processes and factors affecting the taste of tea: amount of leaves, length of infusion, movement of leaves in the vessel, dimensions of the vessel, quality of water (pH, mineral content), temperature of water (including information on how the different chemical compounds in tea behave with regard to heat), a diagram on the speed of theine and tannins are released into water, ..- 22 pages on preparing and storing tea: Indian tea tasting, Gong fu cha, Gaiwan, the large western teapot, the Japanese kyusu and tetsubin. The aging of dark tea- 10 pages on the physiology of taste: taste, olfaction and aromas, mouthfeel and texture, vision and hearing. The parts of the tongue and brain that are involved in tasting.- 11 pages on the mental side of tasting and tasting vocabularyTeas around the world- 81 pages of teas from around the world: The history, current status, main cultivation areas and example teas with descriptions from China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Excellent maps. Contains also production figures that for example tell that the Japanese produce double the amount of tea per hectare compared to the Chinese, and also best the Indians to a more limited extent.

The nice pictures in this book makes it worth the purchase. However, the information within is very inaccurate. For example, it claims raw puerh processing involves sun withering followed by steaming and pressing into cakes - skipping the fact that raw puerh undergoes pan frying like typical chinese greens. Also, it claims that yellow tea is no different from green tea- just a special version of it. Additionally, the brewing guidance is pretty bad - if followed, the tea is either oversteeped or under steeped.

Great book, reading it now.I'm mildly annoyed that the book arrived damaged (see pictures) in a couple of cosmetic ways.

This is the book I was waiting for. It has the details missing in the other tea books, all the way down to the molecular level (seriously, alkaloids and all). When it comes to tea, I'm not a beginner, and the other books I bought just did not get me to the next level. I'm thankful that this one did.

If you're an aspiring tea enthusiast, then this is one of the very few worthwhile books. Most go into a kind of spirituality that is not traditional to tea, despite their claims, and the majority of tea books contain a lot of misinformation. This is one of the few that sticks to the facts and seems to be accurate. Rather than just writing from limited experience and hearsay, the author really did his homework and has some solid experience to back it up.This is one of the only tea books that I can fully recommend.

A coffee table-quality hardcover book, profusely illustrated with full color photos. Encyclopedic, but not boring. If you're buying only reference book about tea, this one is highly recommended.

We like tea. I bought this as a present and they said they enjoyed it and learned a lot about tea from it.

I was waiting for my wife to finish shopping for clothes when my eye was attracted to this book. I was immediately impressed with it's ease of navigation and complete descriptions. With one son in the coffee/tea industry and one in the culinary world, the strength of this book became obvious for it's depth of knowledge and clarity of tea selection and use.

This is a well-written, clear, and comprehensive book on tea. Many of the main types of tea are covered, and the authors do a good job of conveying their character, using a precise tasting vocabulary. I use it in conjunction with  Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties  for that book's coverage of chemistry and details of tea growing practices around the world. Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties

Great, essential and correct (!) tea knowledge. Would be helpful even for professionals ;)

The Tea Drinker's Handbook is the perfect book for anyone who truly wants to learn where the tea they drink comes from and how its manufactured. It may be a little technical for some but it is well-written and easy to understand. Highly recommended to any tea drinker, from the novice to the hardcore.

Esauriente ed accurato per familiarizzare con il meraviglioso mondo del tè.

Ricevuto in ottime condizioni, utile manuale per chi si vuole avvicinare ed approfondire le tecniche legate al mondo del tè