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This book offers the authentic poetry of great tea: Let us rejoice and drink deeply. – James Norwood Pratt
Thank goodness! The Western world has once again fallen in love with green tea. For many, drinking green tea has become a new practice spurred by an interest in tea’s healthy attributes, while others consider it a ritual that helps balance their busy lives.
Modern tea drinkers are often unaware; however, that Europe and North America once consumed great quantities of green tea, first from China, then Japan, Taiwan, and eventually all of the tea producing countries of Southeast Asia.
Bostonians, enraged by taxes levied by George III, tossed seventy-five chests of Chinese green Hyson and Singlo teas into the harbor in 1773; Jane Austen also drank Chinese green tea during intermission at evening dances in Bath; and in the late 1800s, general stores across America kept their tea bins stocked with fresh Japanese green tea.
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| Chinese Lu An Gua Pian goes through a two-step panning procedure. |
Today’s green tea advocates are again myriad, but few are as passionate as Hugo Américi, François Marchand, Jasmin Desharnais, and Kevin Gascoyne, a talented quartet of Quebec tea professionals who, for seventeen years, have developed their much-respected Camellia Sinensis Tea Houses in Montreal and Quebec City.
These four gifted teaists are obsessive about their vocation. Each year, they set out to explore the world in search of outstanding teas. Kevin looks after India and Sri Lanka, Jasmin and François team up for China, and Hugo heads to Taiwan, Vietnam, and Japan. They return with unique teas and fantastic stories of their adventures in far-off gardens.
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| A recipe for matcha crepes is included. |
As a gift to all of us who love tea, they have assembled various accounts of their experiences in those remote areas where the craft of making tea has been practiced for centuries. Readers of Green Tea will be left with a new understanding of these artisanal teas that, like great wines, exemplify the terroir of the local countryside.
It was my pleasure to serve as editor of this 2015 translation from the authors’ original French edition entitled Thé Vert. This is a colorful and informative gift book that any teaist would be delighted to own.
So heat the kettle, steep a cup of tea, sit down with this beautiful book and prepare to be transported to distant tea gardens in an unending quest for new leaf and timeless craft.