Henrietta LovellReseñas

As a tea lover, I was intrigued by this book. The author, a true tea lady, is highly knowledgeable about tea. She travels the world searching for the perfect tea leaves and talks in depth about the farms she visits. She shares recipes for her favorite drinks. The author talks about her personal life and struggles she endured with cancer. She narrates the audiobook and she is excellent! Her voice is so calming and really conveys her passion for tea. I learned a lot about tea; probably more than I wanted to know. At times, I lost interest in the recipes and got a bit disinterested in the book.

Birthday gift for Mary Lou Cavendish - we found only copy on high shelf at Powells

As the author states in her introduction, this is about her personal journey through tea and not a definitive history. Lovell’s company works directly with tea farmers to produce sustainable, high-quality product that is sold for a fair price. Lovell is passionate about how tea tastes and has worked with restaurants to find the perfect pairings of tea with various dishes. She talks about the different types of tea—black, green, white, rooibos—as well as herbal infusions, and the merits of blending different teas to find the perfect flavour combination for a given moment. I liked that this book included recipes and advice on how to brew a good cup for different types of tea, while stating that it’s also important to experiment and try what’s right for you.

Naturally, I drank tea while reading this. I probably overbrew it and/or brew it at too high a temperature, so it’s not likely to be a very good drink. Lovell states that high temperatures and long steeps are essential for bagged tea, which isn’t very strong to begin with, but loose leaf requires a much shorter steeping period. I’ll try out the leaf-to-water ratio she suggests when I’m having a loose leaf tea day and see how that changes the drinking experience.

Overall this is 3 stars for the writing and an extra half-star for the recipes that I’m willing to try out.½

Lots of lovely descriptions of tea gardens, and useful information on tea brewing. Inspired me to up my tea game.

Well written and engaging story of tea around the world. Just like a cup of fine tea, this book was easy to enjoy sip by sip. I learned something from every chapter, was entertained and inspired. She includes the exact details of her tea making and of course you can buy her tea mixtures directly from her company, Rare Tea Company. I enjoyed this book from cover to cover!

Fascinating stories from the Tea Lady. With some in depth discussion of tea, Henrietta Lovell takes you around the world to meet tea growers, processors, chefs and various other food type people. Enjoyable and you'll learn a bit too. I found her discussion on how westerners came to be drinking what we name tea quite interesting.½

Lovell writes well, and this story of different types of tea jumps around from China to Malawi to Nepal to Sri Lanka to Japan to all points in between where tea is drunk. You'll learn why loose leaf tea is so much better than tea bags, and you'll probably learn that you've been steeping your tea way too long or using the wrong amount. But the book is as much about an attitude as it is about tea. Lovell has survived multiple cancer treatments and other surgeries and started a company to do something she loves, which is to introduce others to great tea and to help support the wonderful people who grow it. So this is a bit of an inspirational story as well. It has its jarring bits, as Lovell isn't afraid to throw in a few expletives where probably none are needed. She's also a big name dropper without actually mentioning names, which gets a bit annoying. Checking out her Rare Tea Company website, there are some affordable choices. But we are unlikely to be able to hang with the restauranteurs or hoteliers who have become her customers or to afford the types of meals she eats or attend the parties she is invited to. Still, you'll be entertained--I read this in one day--and you'll definitely improve your next tea-drinking experience.½