Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West
Author: Beatrice Hohenegger
Traveling from East to West over thousands of years, tea has played a variety of roles on the world scene – in medicine, politics, the arts, culture, and religion. Behind this most serene of beverages, idolized by poets and revered in spiritual practices, lie stories of treachery, violence, smuggling, drug trade, international espionage, slavery, and revolution.
Liquid Jade’s rich narrative history explores tea in all its social and cultural aspects. Entertaining yet informative and extensively researched, Liquid Jade tells the story of western greed and eastern bliss. China first used tea as a remedy. Taoists celebrated tea as the elixir of immortality. Buddhist Japan developed a whole body of practices around tea as a spiritual path. Then came the traumatic encounter of the refined Eastern cultures with the first Western merchants, the trade wars, the emergence of the ubiquitous English East India Company. Scottish spies crisscrossed China to steal the secrets of tea production. An army of smugglers made fortunes with tea deliveries in the dead of night. In the name of “free trade” the English imported opium to China in exchange for tea. The exploding tea industry in the eighteenth century reinforced the practice of slavery in the sugar plantations. And one of the reasons why tea became popular in the first place is that it helped sober up the English, who were virtually drowning in alcohol. During the nineteenth century, the massive consumption of tea in England also led to the development of the large tea plantation system in colonial India – a story of success for British Empire tea and of untold misery for generations of teaworkers.
Liquid Jade also depicts tea’s beauty and delights, not only with myths about the beginnings of tea or the lovers’ legend in the familiar blue-and-white porcelain willow pattern, but also with a rich and varied selection of works of art and historical photographs, which form a rare and comprehensive visual tea record. The book includes engaging and lesser-known topics, including the exclusion of women from seventeenth-century tea houses or the importance of water for tea, and answers such questions as: “What does a tea taster do?” “How much caffeine is there in tea?” “What is fair trade tea?” and “What is the difference between black, red, yellow, green, or white tea?”
Connecting past and present and spanning five thousand years, Beatrice Hohenegger’s captivating and multilayered account of tea will enhance the experience of a steaming "cuppa" for tea lovers the world over.
Library Journal
This work at first appears to be a historical survey, but Hohenegger-who will curate a related traveling 2009 exhibition on tea history-offers more of a social history of tea (with plenty of miscellany thrown into the pot). While the author does explore the emergence of the humble tea leaf as a global force, she equally touches on the aesthetic appreciation of tea in ancient and modern cultures. Often a mix of myth and history, the text, broken into short chapters, leads from Asia to Europe, weighing tea's significance through the centuries. Ancient tea ceremonies could literally be religious experiences, as well as the subject of poetry, as tea was associated with Taoism and the rise of art and culture throughout Asia. The book's integrity is difficult to maintain in the final sections, which deal with topics like the modern aspects of tea agriculture, water quality for brewing tea, and the varieties of tea available to consumers today. Overall, the author's light, humorous style is welcome and refreshing, especially when compared with other recent "microhistories" such as Betty Fussell's The Story of Corn and Patricia Rain's Vanilla. Recommended only where interest is high.-Elizabeth Morris, formerly with Illinois Fire Svc. Inst. Lib., Champaign Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments ixPreface xi
From East... 1
Behind the Veils of Legend and Myth 3
The Tao of Tea 9
Lu Yu, the Tea Sage 12
I Care Not a Jot for Immortal Life, but Only for the Taste of Tea 18
Gloved Virgins at Dawn 22
Tea Bricks, Ox Blood, Horses, and Cash 27
The Guessing Game 31
The Eyelids of Bodhidharma 36
Zen and the Tea Masters of Japan 40
Chanoyu 49
...to West 57
Foreign Devils 59
The Impertinent Novelty of the Century 68
Garway's Slightly Skewed View on Tea and the Resulting Broadside 73
The Penny Universities 77
The Revenge of the Fair Sex 82
Smuggling and Smouch 89
Sugar, Anyone? 98
Gin Lane, Tea Lane 103
The Porcelain Secret 110
The Willow and the Lovers 116
A Large Cup of Tea for the Fishes 120
The Opium Factor 128
China Pried Open 137
The Tea Spy Who Came from the West 145
The Wilds of Assam 153
Tea Tom and Mr. Taylor 161
Tea Clippers: A Race to the End 169
Curiosities, Obscurities, Misnomers, and Facts 177
Tea and Tay, Ch'a and Chai 179
The Enigma of the Camellia 182
I Say High Tea, You Say Low Tea 188
Milk in First? 191
The Tea Bag 195
Iced Tea 198
What Color Is Your Tea? 200
The Mystery of Acronyms 205
The Tea Taster 210
Like Water for Tea 218
Tea Buzz 226
The 22,000 Virtues of Tea 230
Tea Today: The People and the Earth 237
Two Leaves and a Bud 239
A Fair Cup 248
Where the Birds Sing 254
Singpho Tea 262
Epilogue 271
Tea Meditation with Friends 273
Chinese Dynasties and Japanese Chronological Periods 277
Chinese Romanization-Wade-Giles to Pinyin Table 278
Notes 283
Bibliography 303
Index 313
Book about: Yield Management or Understanding Health Insurance
Roger VergŠ¹'s New Entertaining in the French Style
Author: Roger Verg
Roger Vergé, proprietor of the famous Moulin de Mougins near Cannes, is a master of modern cuisine. Following the resounding success of his prize-winning Entertaining in the French Style, this fully updated edition of New Entertaining in the French Style showcases contemporary versions of over fifty of Vergé's signature dishes, which are characterized by the generous use of Provençal herbs and market-fresh vegetables.
In his introduction, Vergé explains the finer points of hosting, adding an easy sophistication and contemporary elegance to his elements of basic entertaining. Details include shopping for ingredients, selecting wines and cheeses, and creating exquisite table settings and decorations. He then represents twelve of his favorite seasonal and occasional menus, including "A Luncheon of Flowers," "The Herbs of Provence," "A Party Menu," and "Dinner at the Mougins," among others. Simplified step-by-step recipe instructions and preparation times ensure success for a sumptuous variety of dishes including Warm Rock Lobster Salad with Orange Butter Sauce, Chicken with Aromatic Vegetables and Lemon, Roast Rack of Lamb with Thyme Flowers, and Individual Apple Walnut Tarts.
Vergé's informal yet instructive narrative will benefit both novice and experienced cook. Complete with engaging personal observations and anecdotes, it is accompanied by one hundred full-color photographs by Pierre Hussenot that embrace the color of Provence with brilliant images of market scenes, outdoor table settings, fresh ingredients, and prepared dishes.
Continuing its tradition as a valuable culinary resource,Roger Vergé's New Entertaining in the French Style will add a contemporary Provençal flair to any table.
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