Overview

Jason Goodwin takes the reader on an adventurous journey through the serpentine paths of the tea trade-from China to India to London. Evoking both past and present in this lively and intriguing traveler's journal, he traces the development of the tea trade from its origins in Canton factories through the Opium Wars and the settlement of British India. His travels take him from the lost European cities of the China coast to inland China, to Calcutta, to India's high tea gardens in Bohea and Darjeeling. Full of historical and personal detail, A Time for Tea is highly informative, funny, and original. This is more than a travelogue, it is the soul of economic development.

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9781560004523

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Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. . . . Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. --Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer

-Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. . . . Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend.- --Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. . . . Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. --Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. . . . Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. --Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. -Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer

An engaging and offbeat exploration of the tea trade by English travel-writer Goodwin, whose two grandmothers - Granny Eileen with her tea caddy from India, filled with Keemun and Lapsang Souchong; Granny Goodwin with her tea caddy from China, filled with Assam and Darjeeling - gave him an early introduction to the ritual and romance of tea. Goodwin's journey around the tea trade, which has left its scattered trail across the atlases and the history books, begins in Hong Kong, where he tracks down the elusive and eccentric Professor Tea. Then it's on to mainland China for stops in the once-busy teatrading ports of Canton, Amoy, and Fuzhou; in the Wuyi Mountains, home of the first tea known in Europe; and in Hangzhou, capital of the green tea province. Goodwin carries with him a small library on tea, dipping into it from time to time to share stories, facts, and other choice bits with the reader. A skilled traveler as well as a talented writer, he develops contacts and picks their brains everywhere he goes - no small feat in China. Then he heads for Calcutta (detouring briefly in the Boston of 1773 - for Goodwin journeys through both space and time), where the world's biggest tea auctions are held. He visits the tea gardens of Darjeeling and the Dooars for a fascinating look at how tea is grown and processed in post-imperial India. Finally, the journey ends in London, giving Goodwin the opportunity for a brief but delightful sketch of the social history of tea in Great Britain. Entertaining and elegant - perhaps not everyone's cup of tea, but boasting far more flavor than the average travel book. (Kirkus Reviews)

Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. -Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer <br><br>

Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. . . . Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. </p> --Nicholas Wollaston, <em>The Observer</em> </p>

Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend. -Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer

-Jason Goodwin had the imaginative, eccentric, totally admirable idea of making a journey round the history of Tea. . . . Sipping here, sniffing there, climbing to inspect a rare variety in the Chinese mountains, trying to keep pace in a Calcutta auction room, picking over Asia's tea leaves with merchants in Fuzhou and Cochin and Mincing Lane, Goodwin analyses the perfect blend.- --Nicholas Wollaston, The Observer

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