Tea has been on a nearly 5,000-year long journey to get to where it is today, starting in China in the year 2737 BCE. Tea is the most popular drink in the world, second only to water! The British drink 100 million cups daily, which is almost 36 billion per year. All of that is just the tip of the tea iceberg. Join me on this deep dive into the history of tea, where it comes from, and its many uses and variations! Okakura intended for this book to culturally bridge the east and the west, as during this time period a large amount of cultural production was flooding towards eastern Asia, and he was concerned about the loss of Japanese traditions. In this book, Okakura explores the concept of chanoyu, which translates as “the way of tea”. Chanoyu is another word for Japanese traditional tea ceremony, which itself was influenced by Zen Buddhism. Altogether, Okakura’s book is a thoughtful and complex read. His work explores the aesthetics of the time, the spirituality of Japan, and the history of tea itself. This book was originally published in 1916, reprinted due to cultural importance and now remains in the public domain. As such, most copies of this book bear printing imperfections. However, it is a comprehensive guide to the ethnobotany of Yerba Mate that makes a fascinating read for today.
