How To Read Tea Leaves: Nine Books About Tasseography

Who knew there were so many books about tasseography (tea leaf reading)? Here are nine of them, spanning nearly a century. Note that the first two are available in free electronic editions.

Tea-Cup Reading and Fortune-Telling by Tea Leaves
by a Highland Seer (1921) link

Telling Fortunes By Tea-Leaves
by Cicely Kent (1922) link

Tea Leaf Reading
by William W. Hewitt (1992)
link

Tea Cup Reading: A Quick and Easy Guide to Tasseography
by Sasha Fenton (2002) link

The World in Your Cup: A Handbook in the Ancient Art of Tea Leaf Reading
by Joseph F. Conroy (2006) link

The Art of Tea-leaf Reading
by Jane Struthers (2006) link

Simply Tea Leaf Reading
by Jacqueline Towers (2008) link

The Cup of Destiny
by Jane Lyle (2008) link

Tea Leaf Reading For Beginners: Your Fortune in a Tea Cup
by Caroline Dow (2011) link

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Tea Book Buying Guide

Welcome to our Tea Book Buying Guide. It's not a comprehensive guide to tea books, mind you. Just a look at some of the more interesting titles I've reviewed or otherwise encountered over the course of the past few years.

The Empire of Tea:The Remarkable History of the Plant That Took Over the World
by Alan MacFarlane & Iris MacFarlane
You know you've read too many books on tea history when you find yourself getting weary of that quaint little myth about tea's origin. You know the one - the Chinese emperor who just happened to be boiling water...outside. A few tea leaves just happen to blow off of a conveniently located tree and land in the water. The emperor drinks it and oila, thousands of years later everyone's got their drawers in a pinch about how good this stuff is for you.
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The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide
by Mary Lou Heiss and Robert J. Heiss
In the two years I've been publishing a Web site about tea I've learned enough about it to make me realize that I really don't know much about it. Which is a roundabout way of saying that tea is a vast subject. This point was driven home recently when I read The Story of Tea, by Mary Lou and Robert Heiss. As "A Cultural History and Drinking Guide," it's got to rank right up there with the best of them. But there's really no way that such a work can do much more than scratch the surface of this topic.
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Free Classic Tea eBooks II

Here's part two of the list of old tea books that I've reviewed at The English Tea Blog. Most of them are available in free online or ebook editions. Check out part one of the list here.

Tea-Blending as a Fine Art
by Joseph M. Walsh link

An Essay on Tea
By Jonas Hanway link

Tea; Its Effects, Medicinal and Moral
by George Gabriel Sigmond link

Letter to a Friend, Concerning Tea
by John Wesley link

A Popular Treatise on Tea
by John Sumner link

The Book of Tea
by Kakuzo Okakura link

Tea and Tea Drinking
By Arthur Reade link

The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker

Free Classic Tea eBooks I

In addition to writing about tea at this site, I contribute frequently to The English Tea Store Blog. One of my favorite topics there is old books about tea. Now that every bit of text in the known universe is being (or soon will be) digitized, it means that quite a few of these dusty old tomes are readily available in free electronic editions. Here are links to some of the reviews I've written about them and here's part two of the list.

Tsiology; A Discourse on Tea
By A Tea Dealer link

Tea, Its Mystery and History
by Samuel Phillips Day link

A Journey to the Tea Countries of China
By Robert Fortune link

Tea and Coffee
By William Andrus Alcott link

Panacea: A Poem Upon Tea in Two Cantos
By Nehum Tate link

The Natural History of the Tea-Tree
By John Coakley Lettsom link

The Tea Cyclopaedia link

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Tea Cocktails: A Mixologist's Guide to Legendary Tea-Infused Cocktails

Tea Cocktails: A Mixologist's Guide to Legendary Tea-Infused Cocktails

(from a press release)

In classy bars and cocktail lounges across America, tea is making a big splash. Absolut has launched a line of tea-infused vodka, companies like Owl’s Brew are springing up with teas crafted specifically as cocktail mixers, and foodie magazines such as Saveur and Food & Wine are featuring hot chai toddies and gin-spiked iced teas. With Abigail R. Gehring’s Tea Cocktails: A Mixologist's Guide to Legendary Tea-Infused Cocktails (Skyhorse Publishing; April 7, 2015; ISBN 978-1-63220-449-3; $19.99) you can join mixologists across the US capitalizing on this trend by infusing cocktails with everything from chamomile to Darjeeling.

Teatulia has partnered with Gehring to provide a stunning collection of seventy-five unique hot and cold tea cocktail recipes sure to impress any mixologist or tea lover. Tea, similar to bourbon, tequila, and gin, offers a myriad of flavors: there’s rich, earthy pu-her; grassy and bittersweet green teas; malty black teas; sweet, spicy chai; smoky yerba mate; and delicate white teas, not to mention the variety of herbal options available. Learn how to balance the unique flavors of herbal and black teas with just the right spirits.

Adagio Teas - Best Tea Online

The Book of Tea, by Kakuzo Okakura

The Book of Tea
by Kakuzo Okakura

The increased interest in tea in recent years has resulted in many great books on the subject, with many more sure to follow. After all, tea is a vast topic and hardly one that can be dispensed with in the space of a few volumes.

If you'd like to look back to what some authors of yesteryear had to say about tea, you'd do well to start with The Classic Of Tea, by Lu Yu, a Chinese scholar of ancient times. Although, the last time I checked, this pioneering volume wasn't all that easy to get your hands on.

A work by another Asian scholar, The Book Of Tea, by Kakuzo Okakura, is also worth taking a look at and is not nearly so hard to locate. The book has been in print continuously since it was first published in 1906 and is still available in a variety of printed and electronic editions, including this one, at Project Gutenberg.

This is not the time or place to debate whether The Book Of Tea is one of the most influential books ever written on the topic, but most observers will probably agree that it ranks high on the list. Okakura's work is a slim volume that introduces readers to his opinionated notions and his concept of Teaism and takes a look at how tea became such an indispensable part of Japanese life, both as a beverage and as aid to spiritual contemplation.

Not surprisingly, given the role of tea in Japanese culture and the Japanese tea ceremony, much of what Okakura discusses in this modest work has to do with this link between spirituality and tea. Among the topics covered, great schools of tea, prominent tea masters of yesteryear and the link between tea and Taoism and Zen (which the author refers to as Zennism).

Adagio Teas - Best Tea Online

Featured Tea Book - Book of Tea Classic Edition

from the publisher:

Now available in a gorgeous hardcover slipcase edition, this "object d'art" will be sure to add grace and elegance to tea shelves, coffee tables and bookshelves. A keepsake enjoyed by tea lovers for over a hundred years, The Book of Tea Classic Edition will enhance your enjoyment and understanding of the seemingly simple act of making and drinking tea.

In 1906 in turn-of-the century Boston, a small, esoteric book about tea was written with the intention of being read aloud in the famous salon of Isabella Gardner, Boston's most famous socialite. It was authored by Okakura Kakuzo, a Japanese philosopher, art expert, and curator. Little known at the time, Kakuzo would emerge as one of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, a genius who was insightful, witty—and greatly responsible for bridging Western and Eastern cultures. Okakura had been taught at a young age to speak English and was more than capable of expressing to Westerners the nuances of tea and the Japanese Tea Ceremony.

In The Book of Tea Classic Edition he discusses such topics as Zen and Taoism, but also the secular aspects of tea and Japanese life. The book emphasizes how Teaism taught the Japanese many things; most importantly, simplicity. Kakuzo argues that tea-induced simplicity affected the culture, art and architecture of Japan.

Nearly a century later, Kakuzo's The Book of Tea Classic Edition is still beloved the world over, making it an essential part of any tea enthusiast's collection. Interwoven with a rich history of Japanese tea and its place in Japanese society is poignant commentary on Asian culture and our ongoing fascination with it, as well as illuminating essays on art, spirituality, poetry, and more. The Book of Tea Classic Edition is a delightful cup of enlightenment from a man far ahead of his time.

The Book of Tea Classic Edition

The Past and Present State of the Tea Trade of England

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

The Past and Present State
of the Tea Trade of England
By William I. Lengeman III

When setting out to pen a book on tea, writers of previous centuries didn’t really concern themselves much with coming up with a snappy title. I’ve written about a number of such tomes in the past here and the subject of this article is hardly no exception. Then again, perhaps a title like The Past and Present State of The Tea Trade of England, and of the Continents of Europe and America: and a Comparison Between the Consumption, Price of, and Revenue Derived From, Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Wine, Tobacco, Spirits was considered to be rather snappy back in the day.

In any event, the book was written in 1832, by one Robert Montgomery Martin, who apparently wrote a number of other books on commerce, history and whatnot. If you guessed that this one is not a real...

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Book Review - The Empire of Tea

Here's a book review from the archives.

The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant That Took Over the World
by Alan MacFarlane & Iris MacFarlane

You know you've read too many books on tea history when you find yourself getting weary of that quaint little myth about tea's origin. You know the one - the Chinese emperor who just happened to be boiling water...outside. A few tea leaves just happen to blow off of a conveniently located tree and land in the water. The emperor drinks it and voila, thousands of years later everyone's got their drawers in a pinch about how good this stuff is for you.

For a work of tea history that treads relatively little of this oh so familiar ground you might want to turn to Iris and Alan MacFarlane's, The Empire of Tea.

Iris MacFarlane opens the book with Memoirs of a Mesahib, a chapter in which she relates her time spent on a British tea plantation in the Assam region of India, one of the world's most productive tea growing areas. MacFarlane offers up a fascinating reminiscence from someone who gradually woke up to the sobering truth of what British colonial policies had wrought, in this case, specifically with regard to tea production.

Son Alan MacFarlane, a Cambridge professor, takes over for the rest of the book, presenting an unvarnished and often highly critical look at how the British essentially took over the tea industry from the Chinese by cultivating the plant on an enormous scale in Assam, as well as other regions of India and a few select other countries.

Highly recommended.

The Empire of Tea

Aunt Martha’s Stories About Tea

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Aunt Martha’s Stories About Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

In the time that I’ve been writing about tea I’ve run across countless books on the subject, but relatively few of them were geared toward a younger audience. I actually can’t think of any at the moment, but that might just be a failing of my memory.

I ran across one such volume not long ago in the form of Aunt Martha’s Corner Cupboard, Or, Stories about Tea, Coffee, Sugar, Rice, Etc., an 1895 volume by...

read the full article here

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The History of the Tea-Cup

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

The History of the Tea-Cup,
by Rev. G.R. Wedgwood
By William I. Lengeman III

You might not stop to think about the history of a relatively mundane object such as a tea cup but it has a history nonetheless, a history that was explored in an 1878 volume appropriately titled The History of the Tea-Cup. It’s not completely clear if the author of this book, Rev. G. R. Wedgwood, was a member of the famous Wedgwood family but it seems oddly coincidental that he should write such a volume if he wasn’t.

In any event, the book is...

read the full article here

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The Romance of Tea, by Yan Phou Lee

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

The Romance of Tea, by Yan Phou Lee
By William I. Lengeman III

I can’t quite put my finger on what it is but there’s something about tea that sometimes inspires its fans to flights of literary and poetic fancy. This is something that’s been going on for quite some time now.

I’ve written about a number of rather epic pieces of English verse about tea dating back as far as the early eighteenth century and I’d wager that Chinese poets were tackling this topic much earlier than that...

read the full article here

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Fannie Farmer on Tea

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Fannie Farmer on Tea
By William I. Lengeman III

While there are said to be records of Roman cookbooks dating as far back as the first century, the most influential such works to published here in the United States in the pre-Julia Child era were the Joy of Cooking (1930), by Irma Rombauer, and The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, a book that first came out in 1896.

A star pupil at the aforementioned school, Farmer later became the principal there and about six years after publishing her cookbook decided to...

read the full article here

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An Account of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea in China

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

An Account of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea in China
By William I. Lengeman III

Once upon a time the Chinese tea industry was said to be so jealous of their secrets that when the British sought to grow their own tea they essentially had to resort to corporate espionage. It’s a story that’s been told many times – at book length and otherwise – but for a brief overview of the exploits of one such bold tea pioneer/spy, start here.

With this in mind it’s interesting to run across a book like Samuel Ball’s An Account of the Cultivation and Manufacture of Tea in China. The work was published in...

read the full article here

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Discourses on Tea and More

Here's another article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Discourses on Tea and More
By William I. Lengeman III

Tea was still relatively new to England in 1750, when Thomas Short wrote about it. It was not yet the runaway hit it would later become, but tea‘s popularity was already experiencing a marked upswing. With a title like Discourses on Tea, Sugar, Milk, Made-wines, Spirits, Punch, Tobacco: With Plain and Useful Rules for Gouty People, Short’s book is obviously not going to make for gripping beach reading and to be perfectly honest it’s more useful for its historical interest than anything else.

read the full article here

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Tea. A Poem. Or, Ladies into China-Cups: A Metamorphosis

Here's an article I recently wrote for The English Tea Store blog.

Tea. A Poem. Or, Ladies into China-Cups:
A Metamorphosis
By William I. Lengeman III

Which has inspired more poetic paeans of praise over the course of the years – tea or coffee? I can’t tell you for sure since my knowledge of coffee culture is next to nil. I’d be willing to place a small wager that the answer is tea, but I admit to a rather serious bias when it comes to this sort of thing.

What I can say for sure is that the eighteenth century seemed to be a good time for tea poetry...

read the full article here

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Book Review: The Gunpowder Gardens

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Book Review: The Gunpowder Gardens
By William I. Lengeman III

Over the course of the years that I’ve been writing about tea I’ve had the good fortune to review quite a few books on the topic. While many of them were very entertaining and informative, with a few notable exceptions they weren’t necessarily the kind of page turners that you’d be likely to sit down and read from cover to cover.

One of those exceptions would be Jason Goodwin’s The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels through India and China in Search of Tea...

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A Narrative of the Conduct of the Tea-Dealers

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

A Narrative of the Conduct of the Tea-Dealers
By William I. Lengeman III

There are those tea merchants who pride themselves in cutting out the middlemen and dealing directly with the people who grow tea. But there are probably more cases in which tea goes through at least one of those middlemen before it gets into the hands of the people who sell it to us, the consumers.

Which has been a common practice in the tea industry for many centuries now, as evidenced by a moldy old volume that’s been rescued from oblivion by digitization...

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Tea in Assam, by Samuel Baildon

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Tea in Assam, by Samuel Baildon
By William I. Lengeman III

If pressed to choose a favorite type of tea, I wouldn’t have a problem. I’d go with any one of a number of single-estate black varieties from Assam, a state in northeastern India. Though it’s important to note that much of the tea grown in Assam, the world’s single largest growing region, is not necessarily of exceptional quality.

A relative newcomer to the business of tea production, Assam had only been growing the stuff for about a half century when Samuel Baildon published...

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Tea: a Text Book of Tea Planting and Manufacture

In addition to publishing Tea Guy Speaks, I'm a regular contributor to The English Tea Store blog. Here's an article I recently wrote for them. Click the link to read the full article.

Tea: a Text Book of Tea Planting and Manufacture
By William I. Lengeman III

Nowadays India takes a back seat in tea production to the nation where the whole tea thing got its start – China. But India can take solace in knowing that the Assam region, in the northeast area of the country, is the single largest growing region in the whole world.

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