Tea books … new and coming titles

Have any of you heard of the book Infused by Henrietta Lovell? Since I am an avid reader of tea books, I am always surprised when I accidentally discover a new tea book, and this one was mentioned at the bottom of one of the umpteen book emails I get each day. This book is a fairly new release, and it reminded me that I hadn't searched Amazon in a while to see what other tea books are in the pipeline, so here's what I learned about this book and a few other titles:

Henrietta Lovell is best known as "The Rare Tea Lady". She is on a mission to revolutionize the way we drink tea by replacing industrially produced teabags with the highest quality tea leaves. Her quest has seen her travel to the Shire Highlands of Malawi, across the foothills of the Himalayas, and to hidden gardens in the Wuyi-Shan to source the world's most extraordinary teas. Infused invites us to discover these remarkable places, introducing us to the individual growers and household name chefs Lovell has met along the way - and reveals the true pleasures of tea.

Coming July 2020:

In The Healthy Matcha Cookbook, food blogger and dietitian Miryam Quinn-Doblas explores the various ways matcha powder—a main component of green tea—can be incorporated into everyday recipes to give your immune system the boost it needs to keep you healthy.

Coming June 2020:

The Day the Crayons Quit meets Winnie the Pooh in this hilarious and tea-riffic illustrated picture book about stuffed animals who start bickering at their tea party.

Coming July 2020:

A Dark History of Tea looks at our long relationship with this most revered of hot beverages. Renowned food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins digs into the history of one of the world’s oldest beverages, tracing tea's significance on the tables of the high and mighty as well as providing relief for workers who had to contend with the ardours of manual labour.

Coming May 2020:

What is the place of quality in contemporary capitalism? How is a product as ordinary as a bag of tea valued for its quality? In her innovative study, Sarah Besky addresses these questions by going inside an Indian auction house where experts taste and value mass-market black tea, one of the world’s most recognized commodities. Pairing rich historical data with ethnographic research among agronomists, professional tea tasters and traders, and tea plantation workers, Besky shows how the meaning of quality has been subjected to nearly constant experimentation and debate over the history of the tea industry. Working across political economy, science and technology studies, and sensory ethnography, Tasting Qualities argues for an approach to quality that sees it not as a final destination for economic, imperial, or post-imperial projects but as an opening for those projects.

"No Good Tea Goes Unpunished" by Bree Baker

It’s always nice to come across a great new cozy mystery series to check out, and for those of us who have a hankering for camellia sinensis, it’s extra nice when the mystery involves tea. Having read several different cozy series centered around tearooms, I was so pleased to find a new series about an iced tea shop and seaside café, and my first intro to the series is actually the second book, No Good Tea Goes Unpunished.

Bree Baker’s Seaside Café Mystery series centers on one Everly Swan, who has opened a seaside restaurant and iced tea shop in the coastal town of Charm, North Carolina. As befits a cozy mystery town, Charm is utterly charming, and it’s not surprising when one of Everly’s childhood friends decides to hold her wedding on the beach there. It is, however, surprising when the groom is found floating in the surf on his wedding night.

While solving the mystery of who killed the groom is the focus of the story, No Good Tea Goes Unpunished also has some thoroughly entertaining subplots. My favorite of these concerns Everly’s great-aunts, two elderly women who run a honey shop called Blessed Bee. The aunts are determined to enter a video application in a contest whose winner gets to appear in a documentary on “the plight of the American honeybee,” and the aunts' bee-themed antics are quite entertaining.

How Everly manages to juggle a murder investigation, her aunts’ bee obsession, a tea-shop-and-restaurant operation, and dueling romantic interests is quite the feat, but we’re cheering for Everly every flip-flopping step of the way.

Tea-loving readers will also enjoy the recipes included in the book, and if you’re like me and missed the first installment of this (truly) charming new series, you’ll turn the last page and immediately order the first book, Live and Let Chai, to see what you’ve missed!

Review copy courtesy of NetGalley

Coming soon: New tea-themed novels

I'm trying to read more ebooks since the bookshelves at my house are groaning, but I will never stop adding new titles to my reading list on Goodreads. In fact, I've just started a list of tea-themed books to help me keep up with the new tea titles as I read them. Since I've learned that quite a few new tea-themed novels will be published this year (one of these is actually already out), I wanted to share a few titles that you may be interested in as well. And unless you absolutely hate a book, please don't forget that the nicest thing you can do for an author is leave a review!

Coming June 11, 2019: Sweet Tea and Secrets by Joy Avon

Sleuth Callie Aspen wants to light up the Fourth of July tea party by solving a celebrity’s decades-old disappearance, but her digging results in more fireworks than she expects.

Last Christmas, Callie Aspen left her tour guide job and settled in Heart's Harbor, Maine. Now, she helps out at Book Tea, her great aunt’s vintage tearoom, where each treat has a bookish clue. Though she’s excited to start her new life, Callie worries she may regret having burned her bridges behind her. Fortunately, she finds immediate distraction in the preparations for a spectacular Fourth of July tea party, which will recreate key moments from the town's rich history.

Intrigued to learn that 1980s TV star Monica Walker was last seen in Heart's Harbor before she vanished—allegedly to elope—Callie probes the townsfolk for information. She’s stunned when several locals share contradictory stories about the last day before Monica's disappearance. Did she intend to leave her hit TV series? Was she being stalked by her ex? And why is the newspaper editor who investigated the story at the time so anxious about the cold case heating up?

When one of the talkative townspeople turns up dead, Callie aims to catch the killer. But it’s no picnic: Deputy Falk doesn’t want her meddling, and the locals suddenly know more about the past than they’d been at liberty to admit. If Callie and the Book Tea crew can’t crack the case, they’ll pay a very steep price in Joy Avon's explosive second Tea and a Read mystery.

Coming March 5, 2019: Broken Bone China by Laura Childs

Theodosia Browning serves tea and solves crimes in Charleston, a city steeped in tradition and treachery in the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs.

It is Sunday afternoon, and Theodosia and Drayton are catering a formal tea at a hot-air balloon rally. The view aloft is not only stunning, they are also surrounded by a dozen other colorful hot-air balloons. But as the sky turns gray and the clouds start to boil up, a strange object zooms out of nowhere. It is a drone, and it appears to be buzzing around the balloons, checking them out.

As Theodosia and Drayton watch, the drone, hovering like some angry, mechanized insect, deliberately crashes into the balloon next to them. An enormous, fiery explosion erupts, and everyone watches in horror as the balloon plummets to the earth, killing all three of its passengers.

Sirens scream, first responders arrive, and Theodosia is interviewed by the police. During the interview she learns that one of the downed occupants was Don Kingsley, the CEO of a local software company, SyncSoft. Not only do the police suspect Kingsley as the primary target, they learn that he possessed a rare Revolutionary War Union Jack flag that several people were rabidly bidding on.

Intrigued, Theodosia begins her own investigation. Was it the CEO's soon-to-be ex-wife, who is restoring an enormous mansion at no expense? The CEO's personal assistant, who also functioned as curator of his prized collection of Americana? Two rival antiques' dealers known for dirty dealing? Or was the killer the fiancée of one of Theodosia's dear friends, who turns out to be an employee—and whistle-blower—at SyncSoft?

Coming March 3, 2019: Rosie's Travelling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin

Rosie Lewis has her life together. A swanky job as a Michelin-Starred Sous Chef, a loving husband and future children scheduled for exactly January 2021.

That’s until she comes home one day to find her husband’s pre-packed bag and a confession that he's had an affair.

Heartbroken and devastated, Rosie drowns her sorrows in a glass (or three) of wine, only to discover the following morning that she has spontaneously invested in a bright pink campervan to facilitate her grand plans to travel the country.

Now, Rosie is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime, and the chance to change her life! With Poppy, her new-found travelling tea shop in tow, nothing could go wrong, could it…?

Coming February 26, 2019: No Good Tea Goes Unpunished by Bree Baker

Catering her childhood friend’s beachfront wedding was a dream come true for Everly Swan—and, with hundreds of guests in attendance, great exposure for her new iced tea shop and café. But when the well-to-do groom is found floating facedown in the surf, the locals of Charm, North Carolina turn their suspicions on his new bride. Could she have been so desperate to lay hands on his fortune that she arranged for his murder even before they set off on their honeymoon?

Everly knows her lovestruck friend couldn’t be behind the murder, but with clues pointing in several directions, she can’t decide which wedding guest is the most likely culprit. Meanwhile, the frustratingly handsome Detective Hays has made it clear that Everly should stay out of the investigation altogether. But with a killer on the loose and a feeling that someone is watching her café very closely, Everly knows that if she can’t solve this murder soon, her cake might be iced for good.

Coming January 31, 2019: The Tanglewood Tea Shop by Lilac Mills

Patisserie-Chef Stevie is stuck in a rut. Her beloved Great Aunt Peggy has passed away, she’s been fired from her job and the love of her life has walked out the door. But when she’s called to the solicitor’s office to hear the reading of Peggy’s will, Stevie’s life begins to change.

Left with a large amount of money, Stevie is determined to take Peggy’s advice and turn her life around. The quirky tea shop that she sees up for sale in the beautiful village of Tanglewood must be a sign, and Stevie can’t wait to make it her new home.

​But what happens after your dreams come true? It turns out that life in the village isn't as idyllic as it may have seemed. With local mums waging war against sugar, a tea shop and its patisserie-chef owner are definitely not welcome.

When the gorgeous but grouchy local stable-owner, Nick, shows up he seems like just another fly in the pastry batter but as the two grow closer, Stevie realises he might just be the perfect reason to stay and win over the village...

Released in November: The Secrets of the Tea Garden by Janet Macleod

Trotter

She’s gone in search of happy memories. But was her idyllic childhood in India an illusion?

After the Second World War, Libby Robson leaves chilly England for India, and the childhood home where she left her heart—and her beloved father, James— fourteen years ago.

At first Libby is intoxicated by India’s vibrant beauty: the bustle of Calcutta, the lush tea gardens of Assam. But beneath the surface a rebellion is simmering: India is on the brink of Independence, and the days of British rule are numbered. As the owner of a tea plantation, James embodies the hated colonial regime, and Libby finds herself questioning her idealised memories—particularly when she meets the dashing freedom fighter Ghulam Khan.

As Independence looms, life in India becomes precarious for Libby, James and even Ghulam. And when James reveals a shameful family secret, Libby is forced to question her past—and her future.

"In Peppermint Peril" by Joy Avon

"Callie was glad Leadenby had come in at that moment with the box containing the table runner. She spread it across the table's shiny surface and smoothed its lacy edges. It was a real vintage piece, like the china and the cutlery. The tea party would have an Agatha Christie vibe …"

— In Peppermint Peril by Joy Avon

Tea lovers have a new tea-themed cozy mystery series to enjoy thanks to Joy Avon, who kicks off her Book Tea Shop Mystery series with a delightful Christmas-themed book, In Peppermint Peril.

Callie Aspen has a great career as a tour guide who leads trips to historic venues all over the world. She returns home to Heart's Harbor, Maine, intending merely to celebrate the holidays with her great-aunt, Iphigeneia, who runs Book Tea, a tea business offering book-themed teas. Callie is quickly enlisted to help her aunt set up for a pre-Christmas tea party at Haywood Hall, a historic home whose elderly resident is expected to make an important announcement about her will.

At the same event, Callie's old friend Sheila hijacks the tea and uses it as an opportunity to have her daughter's engagement announced, and the carefully laid plans for the tea soon go off the rails. When the engagement ring goes missing—and missing from a hiding place readers will particularly enjoy—it complicates the event, and so does the dead body found in the home's conservatory.

While the many tea elements of the story will immediately appeal to tea lovers, the mystery itself is fun to solve, as there are so many terrific suspects who might have had it in for the deceased. And Callie Aspen is a character it's easy to root for, so readers will hope to see Callie and her sweet Boston terrier, Daisy, making a permanent home in Heart's Harbor. This book was a well-written, holiday-perfect launch to the series, and I look forward to reading the next installment.

"The Southern Living Party Cookbook: A Modern Guide to Gathering"

In my early twenties, I was introduced to Southern Living magazine, and I've been reading it pretty steadily ever since. Southern Living is always a source of high-quality home and garden articles, excellent photography, and delicious recipes, and they currently feature a monthly column by one of the South's greatest writers, the incomparable Rick Bragg. So I was delighted to have the opportunity to review a new cookbook from this magazine, The Southern Living Party Cookbook by Elizabeth Heiskell.

The original Southern Living Party Cookbook came out in 1972, and this new edition, subtitled "A Modern Guide to Gathering," is a beautiful book that's just brimming with recipes begging to be tried. The book also includes a brief "Hosting Handbook," which would make this book a great wedding gift for a new bride setting up her home.

The book is divided into sections titled Teas, Coffees, and Receptions; Brunches and Lunches; Come by For a Drink Y'all; Cookouts; and Celebrations and Dinners. As a tea lover, I especially enjoyed the first two chapters and found plenty of goodies I want to make, including the Puff Pastry Chicken Salad Ring, Lemon Drop Cookies (they're made with crushed lemon candies), and the Quick Petits Fours. There are also several tea sandwich recipes I'd like to try, including the Salmon-Cucumber ones, and something that sounds like a real possibility for teatime, the Cream Cheese-and-Pecan Rolled Grapes (with bacon!). And since I've never had a Southern Living recipe fail on me, I'm most eager to give these new ones a try. Now if Southern Living would just shoot for an entire book of teatime recipes, I'd be in heaven!

Review copy courtesy of NetGalley

Tea Lovers' Book Club: "The Harlequin Tea Set and Other Stories" by Agatha Christie

Summary: A colorful tea set plays a pivotal role in the short story given star billing in this collection by the woman considered the queen of mystery, Agatha Christie.

My thoughts: For women who write and/or read mysteries, I think it's important to have at least a nodding acquaintance with Agatha Christie, and since I'd read only a couple of her books, I decided this short story collection with "tea" in the title would be a good place to start. It did not disappointment, and I was impressed by the brevity with which she was able to lay the groundwork and effectively create a mini mystery with each story.

The judgment: I liked "The Harlequin Tea Set" just fine, but it was not my favorite short story in the book. I liked "The Edge," "The Actress," and "The Lonely God" much better. I noted that the old mistaken-identity device was used in her stories several times, but I always enjoy that one. I once heard it said that there are only seven different plots in the world (don't ask me to name them!), so if that's true, it stands to reason that some of them will be repeated. And if the story's interesting, I don't mind that at all. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection of stories and think other tea lovers would too, as tea is mentioned in almost every story.

For discussion:

• If you read the book, did you have a favorite short story? If so, which one? (Or have you ever read Agatha Christie? Or watched the TV and movie versions of her stories?)

• In "The Harlequin Tea Set," there was a passage I found myself nodding along with. The narrator is commenting on the hostess: "Continually offering people cakes, taking their cups away and replenishing them, handing things round. Somehow, he thought, it would be more pleasant and more informal if she let people help themselves." I certainly agree with that assessment, and it made me wonder whether perhaps most of us prefer a hostess who doesn't hover. Your thoughts?

Next month's read is a bit of history that sounds intriguing: The Imperial Tea Party: Family, Politics and Betrayal: The Ill-Fated British and Russian Royal Alliance by Frances Welch

August Giveaway: "Tea Parties Around the World"

Boy, do I have a great August giveaway item for one of you—it's a hot-off-the-presses copy of Hoffman Media's latest book from Tea Time magazine, Tea Parties Around the World.

Like many of you, I love to collect these tea-themed books from Hoffman, and their newest one is such a visual feast with all of its wonderful recipes from countries around the world. From the chapter on Scotland, we have some Raspberry-Oat Tartlets with Whiskey-Honey Cream.

And if you love Russian porcelain, there are images like this one to whet your appetite!

And in the chapter on the Netherlands, you'll find recipes for these Speculaas Teapot Cookies, Oliebollen (Chocolate Doughnut Balls), and those pretty Tompões with Pink Glaze and Vanilla Pastry Cream. Other countries with recipes featured in the book include Australia, China, France, India, Japan, Morocco, and South Africa.

If you'd like to win a copy of this book for yourself, just leave an "Enter me" to this post by 7 a.m. on Monday, August 13, 2018, *making sure you've provided an email address so I can get in touch with you if you're the winner*, and you'll be entered to win. Hoffman Media says they will mail the book directly to the winner, and they are kindly offering to send it internationally as well, so everyone is welcome to enter this giveaway. Good luck, and thank you, Hoffman Media, for sharing this gorgeous new book!

An absolute must-read: "Jane Pettigrew's World of Tea"

To my great delight, a copy of Hoffman Media's lavish new tea book, Jane Pettigrew's World of Tea, showed up unbidden on my doorstep recently, and friends, I have to tell you that I am absolutely in love with this book!

I've never seen such a lovely tea book before, especially one so large (10 x 12 inches and an inch and a half thick) and with two (count 'em, two!) ribbon bookmarks. Splendid design on someone's part. And those aren't even the book's most impressive features in the great scheme of things. The real treasure in this book is all of the fascinating information, ranging from sections on the history of tea to its harvesting, oxidation, and fermentation methods and more. I was familiar with some of this information, but in reading this book, I learned there is still a heap more I have to learn about the wide, wide world of tea.

The lush, colorful images are a delight to behold, but this is much more than a picture book, and I was stunned by the amount of new information I came across. I shouldn't have been surprised, but it seems that most tea books give an overview, at best, of the world of tea, and this one goes into so much detail that my inner tea nerd was just beside herself. Are you one of those who likes to know about the chemical composition of tea? How it best grows? How the terroir (natural environment) of the tea affects its flavor? I adore that stuff, and this book is jam-packed with tea teachings I've never read anywhere else. Note the image at upper right, above. It's illustrating how the tea plant on the left has a weaker root system than the plant on the right. Why? The one on the right was grown from seed, the one on the left from a cutting. Fascinating!

And while I've seen differing lists for the various categories of tea, Pettigrew says there are six:, white, green, yellow, oolong, black, and dark. "Dark" teas include puerhs. "Dark tea" is new terminology to me, and I'm happy to have it, along with Pettigrew's extensive explanations (with charts, above) of how each category of tea is processed.

The book includes maps of all the tea-growing regions of the world, and I was happy to note that here in North America, the South is well represented. (We ought to get *something* in exchange for all this heat and humidity, right?) And see that little tea leaf graphic in northwest Georgia? Do you know where that is? Well, I'll tell you. It's at Dunaway Gardens here in Newnan, a historic property just 12 miles from my house, and while I knew Dunaway has been growing tea for a while, I was surprised and oh-so-proud to see it included in the book!

Of course, North American tea growers are only a small section in the book, and the larger tea-growing regions (Guangxi Province in China is shown here) get their due as well.

I felt as if I were opening a surprise on every page as I came across treats like this image showing machines that make matcha. Some more of my favorite tidbits from the book:

• In Taiwan, Oriental Beauty tea gets its unique flavor from some "leafhoppers" that bite the leaves, "causing the plants to produce enzymes to defend themselves and provoking oxidation in the leaves before they have been plucked."

• While I'm familiar with bricks of tea, I'd never before seen "logs" of dark tea like some attributed to Hunan Province in China.

• In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Camellia Forest Nursery grows a pink-flowering camellia sinensis plant. (Yes, I want one!)

• I wish I'd known this when I was in Italy a few years ago, but there is an experimental camellia plantation in Tuscany that has been growing tea since 1760!

• The section on Darjeeling tea in India was especially intriguing and indicated that the tea industry there is much larger than I had imagined (52,000 permanent employees, 15,000 during plucking season!). I also found it interesting that "local knowledge is crucial [to Darjeeling's tea plantations], and expert tea makers tend to remain in a particular region for the duration of their working life because the skills required to produce good teas there are unique."

Jane Pettigrew's World of Tea is now available through Hoffman Media and on Amazon, and if you don't have it yet, or at least have it on your wish list, I highly recommend you get a copy and settle in with the biggest cup of tea you can find!

A visit to Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh, NC

Whenever I'm out of town, if there's time, I love to visit a local independent bookstore. In Raleigh over the weekend, that was Quail Ridge Books, and I absolutely loved this store!

I've seen this particular C.S. Lewis quote in a bookstore before, but not nearly as well done as it was here.

And look at this little reading nook near the magazine section. I would like to transport that to a corner of my home! I'm crazy about the clear chairs too!

And I should have taken a photo of it, but they had a cute vignette dedicated to the recent Royal Wedding, complete with Harry and Meghan paper dolls, tins of tea, a book about Prince Charles's gardens at Highgrove, and this book, National Trust Book of Afternoon Tea by Laura Mason, which I asked if I could pluck from the table (it was a bookstore, after all). The employee smiled and said yes, and she thanked me for asking so she could reshuffle things on the table. I knew I wanted this book because Linda recommended it here. I'm a lazy tea book collector these days, so I sometimes wait for one of my fellow tea bloggers to recommend a book before I purchase it. Besides, I know I can trust anything Linda recommends!

I've already made one very simple and quite delicious recipe from the book, for Moroccan Mint Tea. It's simple. In a teapot, add three teaspoons of green tea, three tablespoons of sugar, and a handful of fresh spearmint leaves. Fill the pot with boiling water (I used "just under boiling" water), and let steep for three minutes. I can't remember the last time I actually added sugar to a cup of tea, but this was absolutely delicious!

"Tea Outdoors" by Marilyn J. Miller

Recently I learned that my fellow tea blogger Marilyn J. Miller had published a new book, "Tea Outdoors," so I ordered a copy and was delighted when it showed up in my mailbox earlier this week! Marilyn has often blogged about having teatime in the great outdoors over the years, so I knew I would enjoy her new book.

"As a young girl," she writes, "I spent most of my waking hours outdoors. A picnic was often tied in a bandana and tucked into my bicycle basket or carried on a walk in the woods. Now I love having my tea in the early morning on my back steps while enjoying the antics of squirrels and birds, thus taking time to pay attention to God's creation surrounding me."

The book includes teatime recipes and tips, and I appreciate Marilyn's advice that "oolongs, greens, and white tea are the best choice for using with thermos water, as the water can be cooler than boiling hot." I wouldn't have thought about that! There are also plenty of lovely tea quotations and scenic photography that will have you ready to head outdoors yourself with a simple teatime treat packed into an old lunchbox or tea basket, and perhaps with this sweet book tucked inside. If you're interested in getting a copy for yourself, please go here for more information. Congrats on your new book, Marilyn!

Tea and Books Saturday #52 - "Tea With Friends"

Tea With Friends
By Elizabeth Knight
Storey Publishing, 1998

Since tomorrow is Christmas Day, I thought I would go ahead and post my final "Tea and Books Saturday" post of the year early, and I couldn't think of a better book to end on than "Tea With Friends" by Elizabeth Knight! This book was a gift from my friend Sandra a while back, and I love that my copy of "Tea With Friends" actually came from a dear tea friend! This book is small in size but big in information and inspiration. Knight, a well-respected tea expert here in the U.S., presents suggestions for teas for each month of the year. As we're closing out one year and looking forward to the next, I really enjoyed reading this book and thinking about what sorts of tea plans I wish for in the year ahead!

Each month gets a chapter, and each includes a suggested menu, a featured recipe, ideas for the tea's decor and atmosphere, and even some historical tidbits related to the month at hand. I was thoroughly enlightened to read in the January chapter that Scottish Highlanders "considered a dark-haired man the luckiest first-footer to cross the theshold." My family has always observed lots of New Year's superstitions, one of which is that it's good luck if a man is the first one to cross your threshold in the new year. (Since I didn't marry until my forties, I considered it good luck if a man crossed my threshold EVER.) The book is also one of the few I've seen that has a handy chart listing a huge variety of teas and including the origin, description of flavor, brewing times and foods which complement each tea. I can't imagine a handier two pages for a tea lover to have!

Well, I can't believe I have actually read 52 tea books this year! Someone once asked how many I have, and at the time I didn't know but now that I've cataloged them all I do: 148. But I can tell you that is nothing considering all the tea books "out there," and every time I look on eBay I find at least a few more I've never heard of. My wish list is always going to be very long. I would not be surprised if there are more than 500 volumes on tea available today. Next year, I'll no doubt review even more tea books, just not necessarily one a week. I will, however, be beginning a new Saturday series on quite a different teatime topic, so please join me Jan. 1 if you'd like to know what it is!

Tea and Books Saturday #51 - "Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn"

Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn
By Jan Whitaker
St. Martin's Press, 2002

Within a 45-minute drive of my home, there are four different eating establishments that have billed themselves as tea rooms. At Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta, open since 1945, diners can get everything from a vegetable plate to meatloaf, fried chicken and classic southern desserts. At the Zodiac Cafe in Neiman Marcus in Atlanta, the store's tea room tradition continues and you can find tasty light luncheon fare such as a salmon salad or fresh popovers. Closer to home, Sharpsburg's Jasmine Tea Room, located in an antique mall, has delicious muffins, quiches and sandwiches, all served in homelike, attractive surroundings. And of course there's my wonderful English style tearoom, Holly Cottage in Newnan, where I will be dining today, in fact!

Now how, you may ask, can such different restaurants all claim "tea room" status? For the answer, just crack open Jan Whitaker's fine book, Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America. Whitaker is the sort of historian I love to read, one with a passion for her topic and the talent to share it without coming off as too academic or wonkish. This book is immensely readable, and it provided lots of eye-opening moments. I love reading anything to do with women's history, and I had never thought about the fact that operating a tea room was an "acceptable" career for a woman back when most women did not work outside the home. Whitaker says tea rooms began to appear at the turn of the last century, and by the 1920s there was a "full-blown craze" for them. The book is also a bit of a tea room scrapbook because it includes so many pieces of tea room art: old postcards, menus, matchbooks, advertisements. I am convinced *this* is the woman who was beating me out of all that stuff on eBay years ago. (And good for her, based on the result!)

Whitaker answered a great many of the questions I've had as well as a few I never knew to ask. Here are some of the tidbits I noted:

-- "Women formed an estimated 60 percent of restaurant patrons by the mid-1920s, up from about 20 percent in 1917." (That figure surprised me!)

-- "Especially popular were sets of glass dishes in green, pink, amber, and clear produced for tea rooms by the Indiana Glass Company from 1926 to 1931. In a tiered art deco pattern called Tea Room, the line included a great variety of pieces, such as plates and cups, pickle dishes, platters, glasses, sugars and creamers, candlesticks, vases, lamp bases, and a range of ice cream service dishes." (Hey, I just started collecting Tea Room pieces!)

-- "Salads, called 'the thinking woman's luncheon, and the university girl's dessert,' were also popular attractions in tea rooms. Salad did not typically mean greens until after the Second World War ..." (Who knew!)

Reading about the early tea room food was one of the things I most enjoyed about the book, though I am still debating whether I am brave enough to actually try Creamed Chicken on Waffles, Tomato Aspic or "Egg Surprise."

This was a book I hated to see end, but I turned the final page and was consoled by one happy thought: Whitaker has also written a history of American department stores called Service and Style, and it's at the top of my reading list!

Tea and Books Saturday #50 - "The Twelve Teas of Christmas"

The Twelve Teas of Christmas
Harvest House Publishers, 1999
By Emilie Barnes with paintings by Sandy Lynam Clough

I certainly *thought* I had read this book before, but if I had I'd certainly forgotten most of it by the time I read it again this week. Emilie Barnes' tea writings and Sandy Lynam Clough's tea illustrations are always on my "favorites" list, and this Christmas book is such a joy-filled work. It's heartening to read, it's beautiful to look at, and it's also full of recipes and useful ideas for Christmas-themed teas. Among the 12 celebrations covered in the book are a friendship tea, a caroling tea, a mother and daughter angel-themed tea, and even a post-Christmas "Celebration of Stillness" tea. If you merely look at this book you'll enjoy it, but it is also a great Christmas cookbook. It is packed with recipes and there are quite a few of them I intend to try very soon, especially some of the sandwich spreads.

The book contains tidbits and trivia about a variety of Christmasy things. Did you know, for instance, that tinsel was invented in Germany in 1610? That means this year is the 400th anniversary of tinsel — and had I been aware of that fact I would have planned a proper tribute because I absolutely adore tinsel! And I loved this Victorian verse about how to fill a Christmas stocking: "Something to eat, something to read, something to play with, and something they need!" I think that's still a good rule of thumb for gift selection, don't you?

I definitely need to read this book earlier in the fall next year so I can plan one of the "Celebrations" as described in this lovely book. This really should be must-reading for a tea lover at Christmas!

Tea and Books Saturday #49 - "A Cup of Christmas Tea"

A Cup of Christmas Tea
By Tom Hegg
Waldman House Press, 1982

One reason I wrote about my "Cup of Christmas Tea" miniature tea set yesterday is that I wanted it parked next to this post about the book itself. I have such a wonderful memory of the day I first learned about this book. Many years ago now, I was invited to Christmas tea at the home of my friend Mike ("Michael" is a woman), and we were all enjoying such a fine time together. Her home is always so warm and inviting, and she had these lovely white tea and toast sets we all used to enjoy our refreshments. We passed around a candle (or maybe we each had our own?) and shared a favorite Christmas memory, and finally Mike pulled out this book I'd never heard of before, "A Cup of Christmas Tea," and read this touching story aloud.

If you're already familiar with the book, you know why I have such fond memories of that day. If you're not familiar with it, then I'll just say that the brief story, told in rhyming verse, is written from the point of view of a younger person who gets a letter from an old Great Aunt asking for a visit. At this time of year, I'll bet we all have people we *should* visit, whether aging relatives or not, and this book is such a sweet reminder that we will be blessed for doing so.

Copies of the book are still around (I found mine at an estate sale), and if you haven't yet read it you are certainly in for a special treat!

Tea and Books Saturday #48 - "A Cozy Book of Herbal Teas"

A Cozy Book of Herbal Teas
By Mindy Toomay
Prima Publishing, 1995

While spending a miserable two days in bed with the flu last weekend, I suddenly found I had no desire for any beverage but herbal or spice blend teas. The hot liquid was such a relief to my throat, and I can't help thinking one reason I bounced back in plenty of time for Thanksgiving was that I drank so much tea! That set me to thinking about drinking more teas this year as preventive medicine, so I was happy to be able to consult a book that's been waiting on my shelf for a while, Mindy Toomay's "A Cozy Book of Herbal Teas: Recipes, Remedies, and Folk Wisdom."

I really like this author's clear, common-sense approach to using herbal teas. She writes, "The debate about the efficacy and safety of herbs as medicines is not likely to be resolved anytime soon … I maintain that the only meaningful approach to the question is to experiment cautiously on one's own, as many herbal proponents have done. Personal experience often convinces us that benefit can be derived from the careful use of certain herbs when we are faced with minor illness. The key word here is careful. Herbs, as well as drugs, must be used with respect."

Toomay's book focuses on well-known, readily-available herbs that can be used to make simple herbal teas. Chamomile, cinnamon, fennel, ginger, lavender, lemon balm and rosemary are some of the ones she favors. She also includes tidbits on the historical uses of herbs. I enjoyed learning that Thomas Jefferson prized lemon balm in the garden at Monticello, and that in Chinese medicine, licorice is considered "the grandfather of herbs." The book also includes a few recipes for teatime treats that pair well with herbal teas. I only wish I had read this book before I started gardening last year, because I definitely would have harvested and dried my own herbs as she recommends. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to prepare a cup of chamomile tea!

Tea and Books Saturday #47 - "The World of Tea"

The World of Tea
By Thomas J. Lipton, Inc.

True or False: "Green tea is picked when the leaves are not quite ripe, and black tea when the leaves are fully ripened." The answer is false, of course, but that's one of the questions from the Two-Minute Test on the opening page of this small book, one of my eBay finds from this year. Now that I've read that new bio of Sir Thomas Lipton, I figured this book probably wouldn't have anything new to offer, but happily I was wrong. For one thing, I learned that by the time Lipton tea reaches my teacup, it has been tested by seven different people a total of at least 14 times. Impressive!

Because there is no date listed, I am guessing this book was published in the seventies or early eighties since the graphics (such as a redheaded woman's fluffy "winged" hairstyle) look like others I've seen from that period. The book is also dated by its claim that no tea is commercially grown in North America. Today it is well known that tea is commercially grown at the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina.

The book contained a great brewing tip I've never read before. "Whenever possible, if brewing tea by the cup, use the saucer to cover the cup and retain the heat." I do have a few of those special lidded tea mugs, but I have saucers readily available as well!

Also included are a few recipes for tea drinks such as Tea 'n Cream Toddy (stir 1 tablespoon maple syrup into brewed tea and top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream), Sangria Cup, Ambrosia Shake, Lime Delight and more. All in all, a fun little read!

Tea and Books Saturday #46 - "The Doll's Tea Party"

The Doll's Tea Party
By M.C. Leeka
McClanahan Book Company, 1993

Wow, I can't believe I will review just six more tea books before the year comes to an end! This week, though, I wanted to share a simple little book that I came across years ago and which quickly became my favorite children's tea book, "The Doll's Tea Party."

This tale is told in sing-songy rhyme, which I happen to like, and centers around a little girl named Missy and her favorite doll, Anne Marie. One night, Missy goes to bed and places Anne Marie on the shelf, but unknown to her Anne Marie has plans of her own. She climbs down, changes into party clothes, and invites all the other toys to join her for tea. Now that's my kind of doll!

"The toys were so excited/To be part of all the fun./So Anne Marie got busy/Making tea for everyone./The lion set the table and/The clown pulled up the chairs./The toy soldiers were busy/Marching back and forth in pairs." And so on, and so on. This book is one I have enjoyed reading aloud to little girls (and once to some big girls!), and I think that is perhaps why this sweet teatime tale is such a favorite of mine. If you like children's books related to teatime, this is one you may wish to consider adding to your library!

Tea and Books Saturday #45: "Six Girls and the Tea Room"

Six Girls and the Tea Room
By Marion Ames Taggart
W.A. Wilde Company, 1907

This 1907 book is one I found on eBay a while back, and though I bought it purely because of the title and the graphics, I loved it because of the story! Six fatherless girls - the Scollard sisters Margery, Happie, Laura, Penny, Polly and their friend Gretta - are living in a flat in New York City and decide to open a tearoom. Following their father's death their mother has had to go to work for a large firm to support her family, which also includes a son, Bob, who is himself working and trying to provide support. The girls decide it's their turn to help make ends meet.

The illustration above (double-click for more detail) shows two of the girls selecting teawares for the business: "They were delightful days of selection of materials for hangings, picking out teacups, spoons, dear little chunky Japanese teapots, sugar bowls and cream jugs and pretty plates. They were made by the artistic Japanese in such good designs and colors that only when one turned them over and saw the quality of the ware did one realize that they were picked up on one of the tables at Mardine's where tempting Japanese knickknacks play a sort of progressive game of their own, from the fifteen cent table up to the dollar one, after which they retire to the shelves as winners." Another tidbit about the business: In the days leading up to their grand opening, Margery checked and rechecked the tea caddies "to make perfectly certain that she had labeled aright Ceylon, English Breakfast and Oolong."

I was pleasantly surprised that this old book had such an interesting plot. The character lessons were ones I expected (and enjoyed), but there was much in this book that surprised me considering the time in which it was written:

-- One evening's supper included potato salad from the deli (well, "delicatessen"). Sounds like today, doesn't it?

-- Another mealtime offering that surprised me was spaghetti. I just didn't picture anyone in the U.S. in 1907 eating spaghetti!

-- When the brother is injured on the ice one winter and has to miss work for a week, the second oldest girl, Happie, fills in for him, and admirably, at his office. That was a surprise -- but of course I wasn't surprised she did a great job!

-- At one family party, there was talk of playing "the old game of pinning the tail on the donkey." If it was already old in 1907, then that truly *is* an old game!

But enough trivia. This book follows the lives of a family trying to make it under rather difficult conditions, but determined to live cheerful, meaningful lives. In the midst of it all there is romance and lost love, a mystery (who IS that man in the sombrero who keeps visiting the tearoom to play the piano?), and more than a little fun. (Brother Bob is quite the jokester, and his jokes somehow come across as fresh and new -- and funny!)

"Six Girls and the Tea Room" is 318 pages long, but the lively pace and charming characters made it whiz right by. An online search showed there are still copies around, including in some libraries, so if you come across this book I would absolutely recommend reading it!

Tea and Books Saturday #44 - "Tea Time with God"

Tea Time With God
Honor Books, 1998

It was wonderful timing that I happened to rediscover this book just in time for this week's reading. With a magazine deadline just finished, lots of social commitments and an upcoming trip, I felt I was really burning the candle at both ends trying to get everything done. I'm almost there, and what a pleasure it was to enjoy some "Tea Time With God: Heartwarming Insights to Refresh Your Spirit."

These devotionals are very short, just a few paragraphs each, yet I was surprised at some of the truths they revealed. Many of the topics dealt with friends, or with slowing down to savor life. My favorite, I think, was the sweet story of a doctoral student who spent a year on a Navajo Indian reservation. She became part of the family and, though the grandmother in the family didn't speak English, she and the student tried to learn phrases in each other's language. When the student's year was up, as she was leaving the grandmother looked her in the eye and said "I like me best when I'm with you." Isn't that lovely? The book goes on to say, "Good friends are the ones around whom we 'like ourselves best' because they have a way of bringing out the best in us. Jesus is that kind of Friend to us." I so agree!

Several of the devotionals concerned ways those of us in an office environment can take a mental break or "tea break" during the afternoon to help us wind down from a stressful day. Some of the titles are "Halt!," "Downshifting" and "The 'Off' Switch," just to give you an idea of what's in store. This book was a gift from a friend many years ago, and I'm sorry I didn't take advantage of its advice before now!

Tea and Books Saturday #43: "Tea with Sister Anna"

Tea with Sister Anna
By Susan Gilbert Harvey
Golden Apple Press, 2005

Several weeks ago, my friend and co-worker Jeff arrived at the office and handed me a book he and his wife Barbara had come across while sorting through their stacks. They knew immediately it was something I should read, and I can't tell you how happy I am to have been introduced to "Tea with Sister Anna: A Paris Journal" by Susan Gilbert Harvey. The author is a visual and performance artist in Rome, Ga., where Jeff once worked.

While tea plays more of a supporting role in this book than it does in those I usually read for review, in which tea is the star, it is nonetheless an important "character" in the book and the title is quite fitting. You see, in the late 1800s Harvey's great-aunt, Anna McNulty Lester, left her small town of Rome in north Georgia to travel overseas and study art in Paris. A hundred years later her great-niece, the delightful Susan Harvey, feels something of a spiritual nudge and decides to retrace her great-aunt's path. Guided by her aunt's guidebooks, journal entries and letters — along with her own apparently unerring sixth sense — Harvey explores what she calls "Anna Lester's Paris."

It is by no means a first trip to the city for Harvey. In 1957, she was a student at Hollins College in Virginia and spent a year in the Hollins Abroad-Paris program. In "Tea with Sister Anna," she somehow manages to weave a seamless tale which includes her writings from that 40-years-ago trip and the current one along with her great-aunt's writings from 1897 and 1898. It is fascinating to watch the 60-something Harvey revisit her 20-year-old self as well as the great-aunt she never had the pleasure of knowing. I was reminded a great deal of the wonderful series of blog posts on "Strong Women" recently concluded by the writer and tea blogger Marilyn Miller. Certainly Harvey and Lester qualify for that group!

But perhaps I care too much about this story because I, too, am often afflicted with wanderlust — plus as a lifelong Georgia girl I have the good fortune of being pretty well acquainted with Anna Lester's hometown.

So would you like some tea tidbits? How about this passage where Harvey is still in the early stages of planning her trip: "On Aunt Joy's Chinese lacquer tea table I place one of Anna's miniature portraits, her plaster cast of clasped hands, the edelweiss she and Granny picked in Zermatt, and the last coral geranium from my porch. Anna's blue-and-white Paris teapot comes off the shelf of my grandmother's secretary. I splash copper-colored tea into two porcelain cups — one for me, one for Sister Anna. I add lump sugar and lemon, and stir with my great-great-grandmother's spoon …"

Anna is focused on learning to draw the human figure while in Paris, and naturally she also visits the great museums and writes of art and artists. But tea and the foods she ate (or didn't eat) are often mentioned, and often humorously. Early in her travels, Anna wrote to her parents of how she was appalled to learn boarders such as herself were being asked to furnish their own sugar for their tea. "I do have sugar in my room but they shall not see it! And I gave the maid a cup and expect to have tea when I like. I call them stingy old maids. I am an old maid but if I had boarders they should have good sugar and plenty of it too!"

Did you note the clever cartoonlike drawings which appear on the front and back cover of the book? Be sure and check out the back cover, especially, by double-clicking if you have a moment. These drawings are by a Scottish woman who was at one time a neighbor of Anna during her stay in Paris.

Though Anna never got to achieve artistic success since she died so young, of tuberculosis, her joie de vivre in her too-short years comes shining through in this well-written and charming book. You can't help having the distinct feeling she would be so pleased her great-niece found her life worthy of this tribute. Interested? Learn more about Harvey, her art and her Sister Anna book here.