Apr 30
Jamie’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "The gentle reading makes for a wonderful way to sit in on tea being taken round the world, sharing the flavors and a sense of company as the stories unfold. "
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The books I enjoy the most broaden my horizons in a number of ways simultaneously. Perhaps sometimes a certain feeling is evoked so strongly the sense lasts for days after the reading has "finished." Perhaps I feel like I've learned something new about a person, place, thing, or method of doing something. Perhaps it's a recipe that shouts at me to try and make it and I incorporate the reading into the eating and drinking with loved ones...and occasionally one book accomplishes all of these things and perhaps more.Interlink Publishing's Steeped in the World of Tea is a book that manages to leave me with all of these responses and more. For a rather slender volume, it is full of poems, the storied reminiscences of the many featured authors, and abundant breathtaking photographs. Many are closeups of tea leaves, tins, or tea time accoutrements - cups, pots and saucers. All are beautiful and will draw the tea lover in for closer inspection, perhaps sending one into the kitchen just after to brew a pot of tea after seeing the leaves so lovingly photographed. The stories and poems and photographs are many and varied, representing numerous countries, customs, generations, faiths, families and time periods. Taken together, the gentle reading makes for a wonderful way to sit in on tea being taken round the world, sharing the flavors and a sense of company as the stories unfold.
Notable stories abound in this book.
Arthur Dobrin's "The Wine of the Poor" was exceptional in describing the "romance with tea" that most any tea lover will easily identify with. His capturing of the sense of sometimes glassy eyed wonder that we've all experienced when encountering the wide and myriad world of teas for the first time is delightful.
I savored Saumya Arya Haas' story of mixing and brewing chai at home, with her detailed explanations of method and all the spices involved, along with her evocative memories of India. It left me wondering what it would be like to have grown up in that culture; the very story is laden with the scent of another life in another land. And you'll want a spicy cup of tea handy when reading her telling of the story of The Spice Mages. The moral of her short story is not to be missed.
Meredith Escudier's short memoir-esque account of the evolution of her love for tea in two countries manages to rightly balance in words the growing appreciation for tea that sends one on the "road to refinement," not for egotistical reasons, but out of true love for the brew. She writes of that sixth somewhat indefinable sense so often experienced by the tea drinker; the sense of ease and harmony that comes from sharing tea, from the most humble to the most elegant, in just the right circumstances with just the right people.
A recipe for Moroccan Mint Tea from Habeeb Salloum will have you planting mint in the yard, or even in a pot in a sunny corner of the porch, like another writer does...just for brewing tea when the occasion arises.
Tolbert McCarroll shares with us his Christmas tradition of taking tea with his family and remembering those who've passed away...but still stay with us. His story is like so many others in this story...a chance to sit in, a gift of sorts in that you get a taste of the customs and memories of a dozen or more people from all walks of life and all backgrounds, and savoring the realization that you have a quite a bit in common with all of them...
Stephen Levine's closing essay, "Making a Cup of Green Tea, I Stop the War" is naturally placed. Like the last sip of an especially delicious tea, in its reading you have a chance to re-savor all you've just enjoyed. And take it with you.
This is a lovely book, wonderfully readable. You can read all the stories at once, or come back to them as you have time and the wanting. The photographs are meant to be enjoyed over and over, as are the stories. The varying nature and subject matters of each author will appeal to virtually everyone, and the bittersweetness of many of them appeals to the reader on many levels. These stories will make you think and feel and often give you the sense of having been invited to participate in the story. A thoughtful and engaging gift for a tea lover of any age or background.
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