It has been a while since I dug into a tea-related book, so when I saw this in the library’s online shelves, I thought it was too interesting to pass over! As it happens, the book is a little dry but no matter, the subject matter of the history of Japanese green tea in America was still interesting.

Green With Milk And Sugar uses the commodity chain to tell the story of how Japanese green tea took over America and how it fell to black tea. If you’re not planning to read this, I’ll spoil it for you: perception (and trade). Japanese green teas rose to dominance amid a perception of Chinese teas as adulterated and dangerous (despite the fact that consumers also liked having coloured teas). But as India and Sri Lanka pushed for their teas to take prominence, there came the impression that black teas were better for one’s health, something which Japanese green teas also tried to claim. The negative advertising campaigns by the India-Ceylon lobbies set the groundwork for the dominance of black tea once imports was blocked during WWII and well… after that America never really regained its taste for green tea.

And that is really the gist of the story. What I took from this book is that perception is everything. After all, when Japanese teas were first exported to America, there were Chinese experts helping them and there was also coloured green tea! It seems like the taste for Japanese green tea was developed in part by anti-Chinese prejudice. The cycle was then repeated years later as the India-Ceylon tea industries marketed their teas as being more hygienic (being made by machines) than the Chinese and Japanese teas.

There are also interesting nuggets of information here. For instance, I’ve never heard of the theory that genmaicha was developed in a hospital in Pyongyang as a medicinal beverage for patients outside of this book. This is something that I’d like to look up, actually. I also thought the stories about the Japanese pavilion at the world fairs were interesting, and the book also mentions a book called “The Wisdom of Tea” produced by the Yamashiro Tea Company which I’d like to read if I can ever find a copy. There really are so many small details here that could lead you down deep rabbit holes if you start researching.

That said, the book is pretty academic in tone. At times, it reads like a dry account of the tea trade between Japan and the US and that’s really not going to interest anyone except fans of Japanese tea. But if you’ve already read similar books, like A Bowl for a Coin, that look at tea as a commodity, then you’re more likely to be interested in what this book says.

Overall, I can see Green With Milk And Sugar having a place on my shelves as a reference text. It’s not directly related to the art of tea or tea culture, but I think being able to look at tea from a commodity perspective helps us to have a fuller understanding of its history.