 | "A slim quarterly magazine... the articles are well-written and insightful, but this magazine could use a bit more content and polish to transform it from a mere hobbyist magazine to a viable national publication."
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Begun in 1994 by Pearl and James Streeter, Tea - A Magazine touts itself as the first (and only) consumer magazine devoted to tea. Its a quarterly publication and somewhat slim (considering only four issues are published each year), with each issue weighing it at approximately 48 pages.
I was very excited to review this magazine, but I’ll admit to being slightly disappointed when it arrived. I suppose I was expecting a publication with a bit more heft to it, something along the lines of Cigar Afficionado or one of the classier food magazines. Tea, after all, is the second-most popular beverage in the world. But, of course, the reality is that tea isn’t quite the mover and shaker in America that it is in most other countries, so I suppose my expectations were a bit unrealistic to begin with.
The magazine itself is published in full-color, with a handsome cover layout and glossy pages throughout. Contents vary from issue to issue, but there are generally three or four “feature” articles, along with letters to the editor, book reviews, a creative writing section entitled “Poetry and Prose”, recipes, and a directory of tea houses and shops. The feature articles on the whole make for interesting reading, and cover a wide range of subjects from tea history to tea accoutrements, to specific blends and types of tea, to interviews and personal stories and anecdotes. They’re well-written and compelling, but most of them don’t have quite the shine and polish you’d find in many higher end magazines. The end result is that you feel like you’re reading more of a small-scale hobbyist magazine, or an independent local-living supplement, than a full-fledged magazine geared toward a national audience.
It may sound like I’m being harsh here so I should make it clear that I very much enjoyed reading through these back issues of Tea - A Magazine. The staff and writers obviously know their stuff and have a real passion for the industry, as well as the culture, history and conservationism that goes along with it, and their enthusiasm is contagious as you read through each article. But as I reached the end of every issue I couldn’t help but feel that there could be so much more here… for a quarterly it seems there should be many more insightful articles, and a bit more polish on the layout and editing of the content wouldn’t hurt either. I think the potential is there, and certainly with the sheer explosion of interest in tea in the United States over the past 5-10 years, I’m sure that’s the direction this magazine will go down. There’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a nationally-marketed, full-fledged magazine devoted to tea that could stand against highly-polished magazines like Cigar Afficionado or Bon Appetit.
Subscriptions run $17US for one year (4 issues) or $30US for two years (8 issues), or you can buy them individually at the cover price of $5US per issue. I subscribe to numerous other “specialty” magazines and I can tell you that on the whole, many of them offer a lot less for a lot more money, so even despite my criticisms above, I will more than likely become a subscriber to Tea - A Magazine myself. But I do hope they continue to grow and expand their publication to its full potential.
You can find more information about Tea - A Magazine on their web site: www.teamag.com
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