We said many times there is not much published on Japanese tea in other languages and some time ago we reviewed 3 great books published in English. We are now very happy to see two new publications that came out only a few months ago: “Tea Stories: Japan”, in English and “La finestra sul tè” in Italian. Here below our reviews!
A brand new book in English entirely on Japanese tea, “Tea Stories: Japan” is written by Lithuanian author and tea trader Ausra Burg, who some of you might know as the owner of London tea shop “My cup of tea”. Since our first gaze at its pages, we couldn’t avoid noticing how beautiful are the aesthetics of this book: elegant yet simple – photos, paper, illustrations – reflect very much the beauty of Japan. The content covers efficiently all the main aspects of Japanese tea: from agriculture, harvesting, processing, tea kinds, brewing methods all the way to crafts, traditions and even some recipes. All is very well condensed and made easy to understand for any reader. Last but not least, the narrative is very pleasant as it goes through the eyes (and Japan travels) of the author: tales of variegated true stories of the Japanese tea world.
“La finestra sul tè” by tea expert and avid tea traveller Nicoletta Tul splashed as a fresh surprise the Italian tea world: there is, infact, a huge lack of written information about tea in Italian language. That is why we are very excited to see such a detailed and beautiful book! Being on tea in general, it covers what tea is from the plant to the kinds produced, from how to brew them to sensorial tasting, from history of tea to how it conquered the Western world, from ceremonies and tea rituals to important tea masters. But of course Japan couldn’t be skipped: Nicoletta here writes extensively about Japanese tea ceremony and even about Baisao and Sen no Rikyu. Moreover, the book features beautiful photos from tea passionate photographers; among which on Japan: Akito Ohashi, Hiroto Akama and Alberto Moro.
We really enjoyed reading both books: highly recommended while sipping your favourite teas!
One thought on “Books on Japanese Tea 2021”
They both must be very interesting