Tea Chings: Appreciating the Varietals and Virtues of Fine Tea and Herbs

This book helped me appreciate the inner-workings---not just the taste---of tea. I will keep it next to my teapot where it will serve a valuable reference to this ageless beverage.


Tea chings: a great beginning   April 24, 2003
Being new to the joy of tea drinking, this was a great introduction. Great chapters on the history of tea, the many varieties, and the basics for brewing a cup. I highly recommend it and their wonderful tea.


The I Ching in a cup?   July 24, 2003
Dennis Littrell (SoCal)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

The emphasis here is on an attractive and somewhat cutesy presentation of tea and herbs very much in concert with Ron Rubin's The Republic of Tea retailing business. There are sidebar quotes from such anonymous "authors" as "The Minister of Travel," The Minister of Soil," The Minister of Herbs," etc., in frank imitation of Eastern mystical pronouncements. ("The Minister of Travel" is identified on the jacket as co-author Stuart Gold.) An example from page 72:

Who draws the water and boils it?
Who spoons the leaves from the tin and places them in the pot?
Who lifts the kettle and pours?
Who could be a greater friend?

This Zen and Taoist take on the consumption of tea is of course entirely appropriate. The Bodhidarma himself (legend has it) contributed his eyelids to the spawning of the first tea plant; and Zen and Taoist masters have from olden times used tea as an aid to meditation. Personally, as a long-time devotee myself, I believe that tea has mystical powers not easily quantified by modern science, and at any rate there is also a ceremonial and a devotional aspect to the drinking of tea than leads one to the quiet contemplation that makes for a life fully lived.

The text is easy to read and there are attractive thumbnail illustrations in green throughout. There are a few plugs for Rubin's company, but they are tastefully woven in. I must however call into question some of the information. For example on page 34 it is writ: "Homo erectus pekinensis, who lived in Southeast Asia where tea bushes grow wild, was boiling water and eating wild tea leaves more than 500,000 years ago." I would dearly like to see the reference for this supposition. (There are no footnotes.)

Also on page 20 it is claimed that white tea has "virtually no caffeine." I am having white tea myself this afternoon with lunch (Foojoy's Bai Mudan) which I have drunk many times before. I can say with complete confidence that it has noticeably more than "virtually no caffeine."

Indeed the whole question of the caffeine content of various teas seems a bit murky in this volume. On page 80 there is a table "Caffeine in Beverages" that indicates that five ounces of green tea contains 15 mg of caffeine while five ounces of black tea contains 40 mg. Needless to say it depends on which green or black tea you are talking about. Japanese green teas in my experience typically contain more caffeine that Chinese green teas. The caffeine in a typical Assam tea (a "black" tea) seems greater than in say Keemun the famous black tea from China. Furthermore, of course, it depends on how strong one brews one's tea and how long the leaves stay in the water and indeed at what temperature the water is when it hits the leaves.

Putting that aside and assuming such things are balanced, as I presume the authors do, consider this statement, also from page 80: "The more oxidized (or "fermented") the tea, the more caffeine it contains..."

I don't see how this can be true since the amount of caffeine in the bud and leaves does not gain from oxidation. It is not the processing of the tea (except for the deliberate removal of caffeine), but the tea leaves themselves that determine the amount of caffeine in the infusion. The authors imply that they know this when they end the paragraph with the observation that "The greatest concentration of caffeine...is in the bud and first two leaves of the tea bush."

I'm not even sure that this is correct. What IS correct is that the finer the tea the more likely it is to come from the bud and the first leaf or two, yet it will not be experienced as "strong"--which reveals perhaps a more important point about tea drinking: in the older leaves there is more tannin, and it is the experience of tannin that seems "strong" and bitter. The finest teas have only a hint of tannin and not a bit of bitterness.

Putting these peccadilloes aside, this is an attractive book that would make a nice gift for tea and herb lovers. For those who drink nothing but Lipton, it will be an eye-opener deluxe.


For Those Mindful About Their Diet   October 29, 2009
Jason Witt (South Saint Paul, MN, USA)
This book talks a lot about true Camellia Sinensis teas with a little touch of history thrown in. But what makes it a valuable resource is how it covers other herbs that are commonly made into tea.

Many plant foods have healing properties that are sadly neglected by modern Western medicine. When you're mindful about what you eat and drink, you'll want to know how to nurse yourself back to health and prevent disease. This book helps.

I give it my approval because Puerh doesn't get relegated to a lower class as it does in many books about tea. Puerh is often considered medicinal and that's the very reason tea has exploded in popularity recently in the US. It's now proven to be best for your health.


A basic fundamental on the subject of tea   September 27, 2003
Michael Love (Michigan, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I'm a confirmed Tea drinker and have been for many years but with the explosion of coffee shops in recent decades Tea drinking seems to have fallen out of favor in our 'instant' and fast paced world. Not to sound counter culture but to me one of the attractions of drinking tea is its slow pace. When you decide to make a cup of tea its not just a ring-pull-glug beverage it's more like an experience, a quiet vacation from a busy day. Time is required to brew the tea, the longer you wait the stronger the brew but also the longer you wait the cooler the tea becomes.

When you order a 'hot' tea you normally end up with a cup of hot water with a tea bag floating in it, you still have to let it brew. So when I started seeing a Chai tea being offered with the same speed and efficiency as a latte I was curious about the Chai tea is it just some marketing fad or did it have some history?

I picked up the book "Tea Chings" for some light background information on my favorite beverage and I was surprised to find out that Chai Tea does have a history almost as old as tea in India. The book also opened my eyes to other delightful facts about tea.

"Tea Chings" by Ron Rubin and Stuart Avery Gold is a pleasant book to read with facts and history of various styles and blends of teas from traditional black and green leaf teas to Herbal and White leaf teas. Although the facts and the information are sprinkled with hint of propaganda for the 'Republic of Tea' the book does gives you a sound fundamental on the subject of tea.

Not to detract too much from the book but to me it read like a term paper rather than a reference book. For most of us this will be a sufficient level of facts, after all how much does any one really need to know about tea? But if you look a little deeper into the facts you notice a few holes in the information.

I liked the book a lot, even the lettering and the green ink illustrations add to the visual enjoyment of the book. It's a good book to read while waiting for your tea to brew.