I know I just started my quest for a good introductory tea book but I think I’ve found it! (I will still continue to look for and read books about tea though… I could be wrong after all). The Art and Craft of Tea is one of the best introductions to tea that I’ve read so far.

Chapter 1 is the obligatory history of tea. It was very short, but I thought that the point about how “Asians […] often conceptualize tea as a way of life” while “most in the West have historically viewed tea as a commodity.” It’s definitely food for thought.

Chapter 2 was about the basics of tea and basically took the reader through the processing of the tea leaves. It was short but easy to understand, which was good. I also liked that the book mentioned cultivars, although I could do with a bit more information in this section.

Next, the book moved on to types of tea and this is where I decided that this book was the best I’ve seen so far. Because not only does the book cover all the types of tea (yellow, green, white, black, oolong, and dark), the book also differentiates between Pu-erh and dark tea. Not only that, the section on dark tea was actually quite extensive, something very different from The New Tea Companion. Out of all the books that I’ve read so far, The Art and Craft of Tea has the best section on dark tea, what it is, and its history.

Chapter 4 is on terroir and focused on the main growing regions. I think that if you want something more detailed, The New Tea Companion has more information (they focus more on teas but the origin of the teas are very clear), or if you’re looking only at black teas, The Black Tea Bible’s section on where black tea is grown is more extensive as well. This was really more of an overview of the world of tea rather than a deep dive.

All that was Part 1. Part 2 is on technique and in 6 chapters, the book covered:
– Water
– Preparing to make tea
– Making tea
– Different types of teas around the world
– Contemporary teas
– Cold tea

Personally, I found the chapter on water to be the most fascinating one in this section because the author went into the mythology connected with water and made an argument that this is why tea can invoke strong memories and emotions. Like the way he presented the history of tea, this is not something I’ve considered and it definitely made me think.

The chapter on preparing to make tea was also well-written because of the discussion of the different types of accessories and their pros and cons. It was more of an overview than an in-depth discussion, but it’s more than what I saw in other books and I especially appreciated the section on how different materials (glass vs metal vs ceramic) can affect the taste of tea.

The last three chapters were really different tea recipes but the note before each recipe was interesting. When talking about Persian Rose Tea, the book said that “if you carefully document the tea-drinking habits of people around the world, you will uncover the trading patterns of the past two hundred years”, which made me want to read an in-depth book on the history of tea. Any recommendations?

The third and last part was on tea cocktails and pairings. This was very brief and I didn’t spend much time on it, but it did round out the whole book.

Overall, I think this is a fantastic book for people looking to understand more about tea and how to make it. It’s got the best explanation of the types of tea that I’ve read so far, and the book manages to deliver lots of information in a succinct, easy to understand manner.