Henrietta Lovell

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.… (meer)

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.… (meer)