World Atlas of Tea, as its name implies, is a book with emphasis on the geographical aspect of tea.
It’s written by Krisi Smith, co-founder of Blue Bird Tea Co.
The company is located in the UK. Unfortunately I haven’t visited their stores, nor tried their teas yet.
This book is divided into four parts.
Part one is titled Tea Basics. It’s pretty much an introduction to what tea is.
There is information on how tea is cultivated, processed, and its history.
In the second part, the book describes the topics of tea brewing, tasting, tea tools, and also the health benefits of tea.
Part three deals with tea blending and mixology. It was interesting, because I have very little knowledge about this
The final part makes up half of the book, and it’s the most important.
I found it unique in the sense that it doesn’t only talk about the usual tea producing countries such as China, India, Japan, etc.
For example, there’s Turkey, Iran, Kenya and Thailand.
I have the hardcover book, and I can tell you that there are plenty of pictures and they are all beautiful.
The author has a great sense of aesthetics, in my opinion. I loved that she included many antique pictures too.
As far as content goes, it’s what I would consider a book for beginners. Not a lot of specific details, and some of them aren’t very accurate.
Nevertheless, the pictures are a feast to the eyes and I really think that it’s worth having in one’s collection.
It was also fun to read, I finished it in about two hours.
If you are in the US, you can buy it from Amazon. Click here for the link.
