Tea Culture - Books - New Tea Lover's Treasury, by James Norwood Pratt, 1999

A selection from my bookcase: 

Pratt, James Norwood.
New tea lover’s treasury / the classic true story of tea / with a prologue by J.N. Pratt.
San Francisco, CA : Tea Society, 1999.
210 p. : ill. : bibliography : index ;  22.5 cm.
ISBN: 0974148601

"New tea lover's treasury: the classic true story of tea" begins with an engaging prologue, "The way it is with me and tea" which explains how Mr. Pratt came to be the tea enthusiast that he is today.  He describes the role that tea has played in his family history as well as his personal history.  

Mr. Pratt begins with an historical description of tea and descriptions of the types of tea that are grown in various parts of the world.  This includes places one might not associate with tea such as Argentina.  This is for good reason, according to his scathing evaluation of Argentina's teas.  I was unhappy to learn that Argentina supplied a large percentage of the tea imported into the United States.  Could this be a partial explanation for why so many people in the U.S. say they do not like tea?

The work ends with instructions on how to properly prepare tea and the rituals and traditions that have emerged for preparing certain types of tea.

This book is written in a prosaic style and has no recipies for foods containing tea.  I believe the work is meant to instill an appreciation of the place of tea in history and the world at large and to add fuel to the passion for tea that some of us have, and, hopefully, that more of us will come to have in the future.

Mr. Pratt gave an interesting and informative presentation on "Teas of India" on April 6, 2007 at Teance: The New Tea Tradition in Berkeley, California.  I was impressed that he introduced himself to each attendee individually and that he thanked us individually for coming to his presentation.  He focused on the teas of Darjeeling, Assam and Nilgiri.  He is a knowledgable, interesting, eager and yet humble speaker and is obviously effective at encouraging his audience's passion for tea.  

After Mr. Pratt's presentation, the teahouse staff prepared a tasting of teas that he had brought for sampling as well as some Indian teas that they sell at the teahouse.  These were whole leaf, single estate teas served Chinese gong-fu style and without milk, not at all the familiar spiced chai found in Indian restaurants.

"New tea lover's treasury: the classic true story of tea" is available for order online from the publisher, Tea Society.  A biography on James Norwood Pratt  and the prologue to this edition are also on the Tea Society website.

A Nilgiri tea line named "Bespoke Teas" have been especially created for Devan Shah's and James Norwood Pratt's "Nilgiri Tea Society" and are available for order on the Tea Society website at very affordable prices.  The Tea Society website states that a percentage of net proceeds from these high-altitude grown Nilgiri "Frost Teas" is set aside as charitable contributions to benefit medical, educational and social services for the Nilgiri tea estate workers.  The Tea Society website says they are the only outlet to sell these special teas.

For those of you who live in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area or are planning to visit it, please note that Teance has a presentation or hands-on practical class, followed by a tea tasting, every Friday evening, usually starting at 7:00pm.  The fees are nominal and attendees may purchase Teance products at a discount afterwards.  See the Teance website for the current schedule and fees.