Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler
This is why we advise you to always see this resource when you need such book Darjeeling: The Colorful History And Precarious Fate Of The World's Greatest Tea, By Jeff Koehler, every book. By online, you may not go to get guide shop in your city. By this online library, you can find the book that you really intend to check out after for long period of time. This Darjeeling: The Colorful History And Precarious Fate Of The World's Greatest Tea, By Jeff Koehler, as one of the suggested readings, oftens remain in soft data, as every one of book collections right here. So, you may additionally not wait for couple of days later to get and also review guide Darjeeling: The Colorful History And Precarious Fate Of The World's Greatest Tea, By Jeff Koehler.
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler
PDF Ebook Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler
Darjeeling's tea bushes run across a mythical landscape steeped with the religious, the sacred, and the picturesque. Planted at high elevation in the heart of the Eastern Himalayas, in an area of northern India bound by Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east, and Sikkim to the north, the linear rows of brilliant green, waist-high shrubs that coat the steep slopes and valleys around this Victorian "hill town" produce only a fraction of the world’s tea, and less than one percent of India’s total. Yet the tea from that limited crop, with its characteristic bright, amber-colored brew and muscatel flavors--delicate and flowery, hinting of apricots and peaches--is generally considered the best in the world.
This is the story of how Darjeeling tea began, was key to the largest tea industry on the globe under Imperial British rule, and came to produce the highest-quality tea leaves anywhere in the world. It is a story rich in history, intrigue and empire, full of adventurers and unlikely successes in culture, mythology and religions, ecology and terroir, all set with a backdrop of the looming Himalayas and drenching monsoons. The story is ripe with the imprint of the Raj as well as the contemporary clout of "voodoo farmers" getting world record prices for their fine teas--and all of it beginning with one of the most audacious acts of corporate smuggling in history.
But it is also the story of how the industry spiraled into decline by the end of the twentieth century, and how this edenic spot in the high Himalayas seethes with union unrest and a violent independence struggle. It is also a front-line fight against the devastating effects of climate change and decades of harming farming practices, a fight that is being fought in some tea gardens--and, astonishingly, won--using radical methods.
Jeff Koehler has written a fascinating chronicle of India and its most sought-after tea. Blending history, politics, and reportage together, along with a collection of recipes that tea-drinkers will love, Darjeeling is an indispensable volume for fans of micro-history and tea fanatics.
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler- Amazon Sales Rank: #80768 in Books
- Brand: Koehler, Jeff
- Published on: 2015-05-12
- Released on: 2015-05-12
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.52" h x 1.15" w x 6.37" l, 1.00 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 304 pages
Review Koehler has the knack of a good storyteller who has found a great story to tell. (South China Morning Post)Winner of the 2016 IACP Award: Literary Food Writing
“There is no leaf unturned in Barcelona-based food journalist Koehler's (Spain: Recipes and Traditions, 2013, etc.) exposition on the growing of Darjeeling tea . . . A thorough account that tracks the growing and processing of this fine tea against the wider changes in today's India.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“The author's friendly writing style and obvious passion for the subject makes the book an entertaining read.” ―Library Journal
“When he writes about the tea itself . . . how the pickers skillfully pluck the leaves and toss them into a basket, how the tea smells as it's being dried, the daily taste tests at each estate -- his prose is both sensory and balletic.” ―Chicago Tribune
“This exhaustively researched and eminently readable book will delight foodies, history buffs and armchair travelers alike.” ―Seattle Times
"It is not just about Darjeeling, though; and not even just about tea. It is also about the history of colonial and post-colonial India . . . As for the rest, it is a book teeming with characters and interest. Koehler, described as ‘writer, photographer, traveller and cook,’ has the polymath’s curiosity for everything, as well as the writer’s ability to listen to and retell a good story . . . A richly digressive book." ―Guardian
About the Author Jeff Koehler is a writer, traveler, and cook, and author of books and articles on food and culture including Spain: Recipes and Traditions, named one of 2013's top cookbooks by the New York Times; Morocco: A Culinary Journey with Recipes; and La Paella: Deliciously Authentic Rice Dishes from Spain's Mediterranean Coast. His work has appeared in NPR.org, the Washington Post, NationalGeographic.com, Saveur, Food & Wine, Los Angeles Times, Afar, Tin House, and Best Food Writing. He lives in Barcelona.
Where to Download Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Darjeeling: A great book for a great tea By jjstiv02 Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World’s Greatest Tea was an absolutely fabulous read. So often with food history books, the writer gets so tied up in the cold information and forgets to make the reader feel attachment to the subject. Koehler did not do that here. He seamlessly blends the information about the tea itself and the history surrounding it with beautiful imagery and powerful emotive writing. As the reader, you truly experience the ups and downs of being involved with Darjeeling: you revel in a successful selling flush and you are devastated by a particularly bad monsoon season.It is a really romantic story, one that starts with questionable characters and the stealing of Chinese secrets. Today, the story is of these struggling gardens with a beautiful, unique product made by the old ways in this special area that also hosts all these perilous factors of terrible weather, inaccessibility, unstable politics, and a waning workforce. Talk about an uphill climb!The delicacy of Darjeeling combined with the urgency many of the gardens face to remain open created great tension throughout the book. It really is a product that cannot be made anywhere else, a handicraft of centuries. I loved the description of the daily workings of the gardens. It’s stunning how hard they all work every day for mere pounds of the tea. The opening section (a tea auction that fetches a record price for Darjeeling) was particularly exhilarating.I absolutely LOVED the beginning sections for each part that gave the reader a ‘taste’ of that season’s flush. It is now a life goal of mine to try Darjeeling autumn flush tea (p.167-9) as that part was my favorite of the whole book. Koehler just does such a wonderful job of controlling the flow of the book, jumping from the big perspective of the historical sweep down to the moment-in-time perspective of individual garden managers and a single cup of tea.At the end of the book is a list of recipes as well. What foodie does not love that! I already am planning to try three recipes: the masala omelet, Glenburn’s chicken and fresh mint hamper sandwiches, and the specced chicken cutlets. Yum! A big thank-you to Koehler for a lovely read that now has a treasured place on my bookshelf!Favorite quotation: “Fermentation is simply a process of death and decay. We are afraid of death—but love the flavor of it.” (p. 84)*Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the GoodReads First Reads program. I want to thank Bloomsbury Publishing for the copy and the opportunity to read it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. A great book about a great tea By Michael H. What a great book. What a wealth of information about Darjeeling tea and about tea in general. I truly enjoyed reading it and it tremendously expanded my knowledge about these great teas. I am a big fan of Darjeeling teas and this book makes me appreciate them even more. I really like the structure of the book and the inspirational way in which it was written. It has so many suprises and interesting facts. Thanks, Jeff, every sip of Darjeeling tea I am taking I have an expanded sense of appreciation.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. How the best got that way By David Wineberg Normally, it’s animals that tie a farmer to the land. You can’t leave for a day. Vegetables and fruit are far less demanding on an hourly basis. Unless you’re taking about tea, where the finest has its own universe of rules. The greatest teas come from Darjeeling, a quarter of the way up the Himalayas. They are harvested daily (every bush must be plucked at least weekly, March through November). The harvests are different, according to the cull, the weather, the time of year, the humidity and even the phase of the moon. They must be processed immediately, and stopping a process is a minute to minute judgment based on smell and feel. Great tea is as labor intensive as it gets. The pay is lousy, and the life is isolated. And yet, once given the opportunity to be a planter in Darjeeling, people tend to stay for life.Tea is naturally a tree, and will grow into one unless constantly trimmed and plucked (harvested) to keep it low enough for workers. Imagine hundreds of acres of bonsais, and you can imagine all the attention needed to keep everything producing daily. All tea comes from one plant. It’s the way the planters process the leaves that makes tea white or green or black, sweet or smoky, heavy or light.These are the ingredients Jeff Koehler stirs into Darjeeling, an endlessly entrancing journey from smuggled seeds to world record auctions. The topography is unforgiving, the climate(s) fearsome, and the workers horrendously underpaid in a feudal system set up by the British. That anything comes of it at all is a mystery. Yet the brand is so powerful, five times as much Darjeeling tea is sold as can be produced.For some reason, plantations acquired the name tea garden, even though the average “garden” is 553 acres and produces 220,000 pounds of tea. There are 87 tea gardens in Darjeeling, with 58 certified organic. There are four “flushes” per year, as the leaves are physically different spring, summer, monsoon and fall. “Darjeeling” is now protected like any high quality international geographic brand. Still, 80% of the Darjeeling tea in stores is doctored if not entirely counterfeit. In Germany for example, it is perfectly legal to blend 50% other tea and still call it Darjeeling.The process of making tea uses no chemicals. First they wither. Then rolling the leaves causes a breakdown in the cell structure, inducing fermentation. Stopping the fermentation is a matter of quick drying, and the leaf’s condition is set until soaked. (Zero fermentation leads to green tea.) Getting it off the mountain is another challenge, as is dealing with 40% absenteeism. It all makes for a real education and a much higher appreciation of that simple cup of tea.David Wineberg
See all 8 customer reviews... Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff KoehlerDarjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler PDF
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler iBooks
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler ePub
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler rtf
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler AZW
Darjeeling: The Colorful History and Precarious Fate of the World's Greatest Tea, by Jeff Koehler Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar