We’re going back into the archives to revisit these classic posts by James Norwood Pratt. This post begins the next series: types of tea. Today’s includes “The Treasury”, “Teas of China – Introduction”, and “Green Tea (Lu-Cha): Eyebrow and Gunpowder”. We have added a link to the end of each one to take you to the next if you would like to read them as a sequence, or you can choose which you want to peruse below. Enjoy!
The Treasury
Not all tea is worth writing about. Worldwide tea production averages perhaps three billion pounds, which provides little more than half a pound of tea per person per year. The trend is…(Read more)
Teas of China – Introduction
Tea is a divine herb. Profits are ample if one plants it. The spirits are purified if one drinks it. It is something esteemed by the well-born and the well-to-do which the plebeians and social dregs also cannot do without. Truly it is a necessity in the daily life of man, and an asset for the fiscal prosperity of the commonwealth.
Xu Guangqi, Ming-era scholar-statesman (1562 – 1633), Book of Agricultural Administration
All the tea in China was once classified by the Imperial Tea Bureau, whose job never ended since…(Read more)
Green Tea (Lu-Cha): Eyebrow and Gunpowder
Green or unfermented tea was the earliest version of modern leaf tea, apparently originating in the late twelfth century under the late Song. Green tea makes up more than half of China’s crop, even without…(Read more)
Photo “Tea Tasting too” is copyright under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License to the photographer Darin Barry and is being posted unaltered (source)
