Description
This witty and well-researched book on tea covers topics as diverse as the history of tea in Korea and Iran, botanical espionage and the sexual innuendo of tea. It also manages to introduce the reader to a huge range of teas and the 6-colour coding system of tea production. That’s right, there are not just black and green teas!
To read some of the tea poems featured in the book (and more), visit http://annenorman.wordpress.com/category/poems/tea-poems/
Curiosi-tea has 204 pages with 58 cartoon-like illustrations, 4 maps, a bibliography, index and glossary.
Chapters
A Fairytale of Adventure and Adversi-tea: Jack and the Tea Stalk
A healthy mentali-tea: neurodegenerative disease
Absurdi-tea: absurd ditty
Antiqui-tea: Chinese mythology
Ar-tea Far-tea Litera-tea: steeped in culture – poets and tea
Authentici-tea and Traceabili-tea: an identity crisis (Darjeeling)
Authori-tea: fermented or oxidised?
Border Securi-tea: customs in Casablanca
Botanical espionage in pursuit of Commodi-tea: the theft of tea
Camel-mile-tea: Russian Caravan
Causali-teas and Casual-teas: a round-about way of buying tea
Chinese Provinciali-tea: where tea is grown in China
Christiani-tea: tea-drinking Jesuits
Dei-tea: the avatar of tea and Lu Yu
Disclaimi-tea: disclaimer
Distant echoes of maiden beau-teas: Huangshan mountain tea
eTEAmology: the history of the word for tea
Exclusivi-tea: ludicrously expensive Dahongpao
False Identi-tea: be careful what you call ‘Tea’
Feminini-tea and the Goddess: the bodhisattva of compassion
Fleeting populari-tea in America: a green tea nation
Foreign profiteering and religious sensitivi-teas: a fatwa against sweet tea
Foreplay vani-tea: the evolution of a book, and encountering Camellia Cha
Glossary of clari-tea: pronunciations and definitions
Gratui-tea: acknowledgements
Harmonious Communi-tea: Korean monastic tea rites
High Socie-tea: high in the Himalayas
High Tea, Low Tea, anywhere you go tea: a search for clarity in terminology
Hospitali-tea: Tea: Host or Guest?
Human Potentiali-teas: the Max Havelaar factor
Humidi-tea and Clouds: ideal conditions for growing tea
Hump-tea Dump-tea: putting Humpty back together again
Hyperactivi-tea: a caffeine buzz
Immorali-tea: the opium wars
Impuri-tea: unsavoury adulteration
Inaccessibili-tea: monkey business
Index Curiosi-tea: key words
Indian Tea Estate Locali-tea: tea growing regions in India
Inequi-tea and proper-tea ownership: buying off indigenous Australians with tea
Inevitabili-tea: cause and effect
Inferiori-tea: staffroom complexities
Infideli-tea: a fickle tea drinker: Lapsang Souchong
Infini-tea: the endless ways of tea
Inhumani-tea and Mortali-tea: the tea industry in Assam
Insani-tea: the Trumpet of the Angel of Death
Insobrie-tea: tea with a punch
Instabili-tea in the tea market: tea smuggling in Iran and beyond
Latitudinal Extremi-tea: an earth-shattering question (the meaning of life)
Letting off sTEAm in the kitchen: kitchen tea and emancipation
Longevi-tea: long live pu’er !
Loyal-teas, Rebels and Export Ingenui-tea: Oura Kei’s tea exports to America
Maritime communi-tea: the North Sea islands of Ostfriesland
Market-a-billy-tea: an Aussie icon (Ceylon Tea)
Marriage Rituali-teas: tea and betrothal customs
Masters of Dexteri-tea: tea masters with great agility
Materni-Tea Ceremony: expresso tea
Medicinal Proper-teas: miraculous claims
Modes-tea: how much can you hide with a tealeaf?
Musicali-tea: the journey of tea through song
My DING DONG inabili-tea: brain malfunction via word association
Nativi-Tea: prematurity – Romans and the Silk Road
Nonconformi-tea in Patagonia: eco-tourists and non-conformists
Novel-tea: matcha ice cream
Posteri-tea: Korean tea culture
Practicali-teas: practical rituals for preparing tea
Publici-tea stunts: Sir Thomas Lipton
Puri-tea and continui-tea: the Japanese Way of Tea
Quanti-tea: global tea statistics
Radioactivi-tea: strontium 90 and more
Reading Referentiali-tea: bibliography
Reciproci-tea: trading tea for horses with Tibet
Reflectivi-tea: postscript
Royal-tea: the drink of Kings and Queens
Ruined by Salini-tea: the Boston Tea Party
Russian recreational liber-teas: around the samovar
Serendipi-tea and Adaptabili-tea: the origin of the teabag
Servili-tea and civili-tea: tea in the workplace
Sexuali-tea: the innuendos of tea
Shocking Reali-teas of Scientific Objectivi-tea: the dangers of bad tea
Shopper’s Anxie-tea: too much choice?
Smuggling and Brutali-tea: tea smuggling in England
Solidari-tea and Productivi-tea: the tea break and the industrial revolution
Spirituali-tea: spirituality
Strength and Fragili-tea: the quest for porcelain
Strip Teas: breakfast tease
Superiori-tea: tea clipper design
Sustainabili-tea: global responsibility
Synchronici-tea: the gentle art of tealeaf reading
Tang, tea, tongues and tongs: commodity in Tang China
Tea waste Utili-tea: what to do with the leaves at the bottom of your teapot
Teabag Sucker: the ultimate tea wRap
Tea-ny-weeny Nano-tea: invisibility, increased bioavailability, potential toxicity
Terminology Dispari-tea: I’ve got the oolong blues
The Cult of Personali-tea: maintaining the image of the Great Leader
The Drink of Immortali-tea: offerings to the ancestors and immortals
The Milky Ways of Tea: just how many ways to drink tea with milk are there?
The Promiscui-tea of Nobili-tea: Earl Grey and the Duchess of Devonshire
Tranquilli-tea? power, politics and tea in Japan
Twinings Celebri-tea: the recipe of Earl Grey tea
Uniformi-tea: cloned tea cultivars of Kenya
Universali-tea: kombucha’s purported benefits
Varie-teas: the tea plant and the six colour processing
Victorian Morali-teas: Queen Victoria
Volatili-tea: gunpowder diplomacy on the Pearl River
Vulnerabili-tea: beware outrageous publici-tea
Yummy Yum Cha: eat, drink tea and be merry
Zero Gravi-tea: tea in space
Jenny Tai, Creative Chinese Tea Workshop facilitator @ The Tea Studio in the French Concession, Shanghai, China –
I am so overwhelmed and surprised by your book! It’s such a great new fresh take on things that I really really really really had fun looking through it! It’s a great thing how there are so many different ways to look at one subject, and your creativity is beyond many Chinese tea drinker’s imagination.
Alan Macfarlane, Emeritus Professor of Anthropological Science and Fellow of King’s College at Cambridge –
Curiosi-tea shows great Virtuosi-tea. I enjoyed it very much and learnt a lot. A huge amount of information and wit. If you ever come to Cambridge I would be happy to give you a cup of green tea and a copy of the book on Green Gold which my mother and I wrote. From a fellow worshipper of tea…
Dr Rachael Kohn, presenter on The Spirit of Things, Radio National, Australia –
Everything about this book is an exuberant bit of fun, gorgeously produced and also full of fascinating information. It is a total work of art, and of course even the author’s name is an invention, the tea plant being part of the Camellia family. This really is a laugh out loud book, with tongue-in-cheek poetry, funny illustrations, and three narrators, one of them an avatar. There’s also some important warnings to tea enthusiasts, like don’t make tea from the highly toxic Angel’s Trumpet! A perfect gift – if you’re able to part with it!
Barre Phillips, musician, Provence, France –
Curiosi-tea is a wonder. I had no idea of everything that is in my morning cuppa – historical, geographical, agricultural, economic, political and cultural. Excellent, concise writing, drole, as entertaining as it is informative. Bravo Camellia and merci beaucoup.
Peter Micic, Cloud Nine Teas, Yunnan, China –
This might very well be the best tea book I have ever read… smart, savvy, sophisticated. It is fun, accessible and thoroughly engaging… Camellia Cha (aka Anne Norman) is a wordsmith of exceptional talent and just one very cool storyteller. Everything about this book has been carefully chiseled, shaped and honed. One of the first things that grabbed me about the book was the design, the layout, the gorgeous maps, the wonderful drawings… So what would you expect to find in this tea-singly delightful book? Here are some of the topics:
The titles alone are enough to seduce you and pique your curiosi-tea for more infusions of tea tales and adventures around the world. This is a book that gives access to radically different ways of looking at a tea and tea culture, the kind of book that will be remembered and talked about by people for generations to come. It is already a tea classic which I hope will find more and more readers and adoring fans. Rarely am I so enthused by a book on tea, but this is a gem. I would go so far as to say that it is already dwarfs the ocean of books out there on tea, and will become a tea classic in the 21st century.