Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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A TEA LOVER'S TRAVEL DIARY JASON C.S. CHEN CARDINAL PUBLISHERS GROUP, 2011 hen is the owner of Bellevue, Wash.-based importer C.C. Fine Tea, and in this book the Taiwan native makes it clear that tea can be as compelling visually as it is gastronomically. With camera in hand, Chen made dozens of trips to a pair of renowned oolong-production areas in China: the Phoenix Mountains in Guangdong province and the Minnan section of Fu- jian province (known for its infamous Tie Kuan Yin varietal). The resulting trove of photographs brings out the splendor and rigor embedded in places where life centers around the pluck and the process. The shots of misty, terraced landscapes are wondrous and attention grabbing, of course, but they're also what we're so used to seeing on the pages of travel glossies. What may be more intriguing to tea enthusiasts are the photos that explore the nitty-gritty production details: the expansive, centuries-old trees that serve as reminders of the wild nature of the product; the con- centrated looks of manufacturing professionals as they coax the withering process forward; and the tasting table, where success and failure are judged in a sniff and a slurp. THE BOOK OF TEA OKAKURA KAKUZO (WITH INTRODUCTION BY BRUCE RICHARDSON) BENJAMIN PRESS, 2011 t's been said that Okakura Kakuzo was ahead of his time. The American transplant from Japan originally published his often-referenced "The Book of Tea" in 1906, and the work's focus on the power of simplicity and space influenced a number of artistic trendsetters through the rest of the 20th century, including architect Frank Lloyd Wright and painter Georgia O'Keefe. In this latest presentation of Okakura's masterpiece, however, Richardson (who runs Benjamin Press and Kentucky-based Elmwood Inn Fine Teas) aims to frame the writer as someone who was a distinct product of his own time as well as a forerunner to notions yet to come. Richardson's introduction explains the unique period in Japan in which Okakura grew up—the country had just opened up to Western commerce, and the boy saw firsthand in his father's silk store the shift from a culture centered on tradition to one dominated by commerce. No wonder then that when he eventually made his way to Boston at the dawn of the technology-driven 20th century, he was able to capture the essence of society in transition and artfully illuminate the values that were in danger of being lost—ideas such as quiet beauty, deep learning and introspection. They are the values of tea, as relevant now as they were then. HEART TO HEART: CONSIDERED SENTIMENTS FOR TEATIME EARLENE GREY GREY PUBLISHING, 2010 regon-based Grey has for the past two years promoted the connection between verse and the leaf by way of an annual Tea Poetry contest. While that event aims to celebrate the work of other leaf-inspired linguaphiles, "Heart to Heart" is all Grey matter, delivering several dozen poems from the writer that touch on such subjects as simple yet elusive content- ment, the often curious passing of time and the presence of religion in day-to-day activities. The book's more substantial poems tie into tea not by discussing the beverage itself but by delving into the areas of the mind that one might explore after a few sips in a quiet spot. Some shorter spurts of verse, however, discuss the leaf and its liquor directly: "To learn how to live life well, learn how to brew tea well," Grey writes. "It's the same thing, after all." FRESH CUP MAGAZINE #