The globetrotter who shows us that tea is an adventure
The book’s preface outlines her life: She journeys the world almost ceaselessly, visiting small farms in China, Taiwan, India and Africa that make extraordinary teas, and then working with top-flight restaurants in many countries to introduce those teas to discerning diners using exacting brewing methods.
But just as Lovell often shares evocative stories to help her clients connect with the teas she sells, she understands a book on the topic needs to go further than instructions and exploits. She plumbs deeper meanings, from her own life and beyond. This is a chronicle of someone who chose to give herself over to the pursuit of a Big Life, with the triumphs and sacrifices that choice brings.
Levity carries many of her narratives. Maybe it’s my recent binge-watching of “Fleabag” but I felt keenly attuned to Lowell’s incisive, sometimes slyly racy British humor. It gives her travelogues wit and context: “[T]here was a spiced omelette waiting for me and a cup of teabag tea. I passed the teabag back to the man, shook my head and scrunched up my face. He looked at me blankly. Peering into his shed, I could see a fridge full of beer, a kettle, a hotplate, a computer, a stereo with speakers and a hipsterish siphon coffee contraption. We were deep inside Taiwanese tea country and I had a very good cup of coffee. We could have been in Shoreditch.
She doesn’t sugarcoat the bitter edges of tea’s history, including clear-eyed discussions of how colonialism and class define Britain’s relationship with the beverage. In tracing the evolution of afternoon tea traditions, she acknowledges the World War II-era mentality that cemented tea as a symbol of stiff-upper-lip stoicism. As a culinary insurgent and businessperson she notes, “To some people it can seem like a kind of betrayal to aspire to having fine food or good tea.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
I tried bubble tea from 7 major chains to see which has the best, and the winner was difficult to choseI tried the bubble tea at seven of the biggest bubble tea chains with New York locations, and Tiger Sugar and Gong Cha came out on top.
Read more »
4 Looks That Get Us Excited for Boot SeasonBrittany Xavier shows us how to style four pairs of boots with different looks.
Read more »
4 Looks That Get Us Excited for Boot SeasonBrittany Xavier shows us how to style four pairs of boots with different looks.
Read more »
Scenes From a Chinese Bank Run: \n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t‘We Really Can’t Afford to Lose the Money’Officers at Yichuan Bank dangled various inducements, including boxes of tissue, plastic chairs, tea thermoses and loose leaf tea to keep customers from jumping ship
Read more »
October's ISM manufacturing index is 48.3, a worse-than-expected contractionThe U.S. ISM manufacturing index was expected to show a contraction in activity in October, the third month in a row.
Read more »