Seed to Sip Tea Infographic

The amount of infographics out there increase everyday, and ones for tea seem to pop up almost as frequently. However, I have decided to create my own. This is a simple one; explaining the key concepts of where tea comes from, and what the production process is for the different types of tea. Please feel free to comment with suggestions for future infographics you'd like to see! I hope you enjoy! 

A Bit of Brew Infographic

Here is an infographic I created that simply shows a few standard things to know when it comes to brewing that perfect cuppa. Information can be intriguing as well, so glance below to see what temperature you should brew an oolong at, and how long you should brew your white tea for. Did you know the bigger the leaf the more antioxidants you'll get from it? If not (or even if you did) I suggest taking a glance. Please feel free to comment with any questions/suggestions or requests for more infographics! 

Coffee Culture: A Visual and Literary Collection

Coffee has been around for hundreds of years; it is the most popular world-wide beverage; coffee has permeated not only American culture, but cultures across the globe and in some cases it has even shaped the culture of countries. Therefore, I view coffee as more than just an extremely enjoyable beverage, I see it as a common thread, wrapped around the world that weaves together the stories and timelines of all it contacts. That being said, I have put together this post as a sort of collection with different types of media to depict the culture of coffee from past to present. 


I. Coffee History

Photo: H is for Home on Flickr

Coffee History Primer

Coffee History: The Percolator

Hawaiian Coffee

Ethiopian Coffee

Costa Rica Coffee History

The Coffee House - A History

Colombian Coffee

My Coffee Tis of Thee

Coffee and Brazil - How Coffee Molded the Culture of a Country






II. Commercialization of Coffee

Yellow Coat: Two Coffee Paintings Tell a Short Story

The poster Victoria Arduino by Leonetto Cappiello (1922)

The painting Coffee Grinder by Jaggu Prasad

The History of Coffee: Part IV - Commercialization of Coffee

The Popularity of Coffee

300 Vintage Coffee Ads and the Lessons They Teach Us

Celebrity Coffee Commercials

III. Modern Coffee

5 Snobby Videos That Prove Coffee Culture Has Gone Too Far

Cafegrafia | Coffee type experiment

Coffee Art

By: Andy Saur & Angela Sarkela

Coffee with your light? A DIY Chandelier

Coffee Tasseography - Fortune Telling with Coffee

A Coffee Lover's Guide to Tea

7 Easy Tricks to Make Your Coffee More Eco-Friendly

Coffee Through The Ages

By: Michael Rohde

Creating the Sketchtoon Coffee Calendar

The Brewrary: A Visual Online Library of Books on Coffee and Tea

Here is a collection of some of the best coffee and tea reads that I have come across in my literary searches. Whether you're looking for a recipe guide, a beginner's introduction, cultural comparisons or deep historical accounts the compilation below has something for everyone, and just in case you don't see something that strikes your fancy, be sure to check back regularly because my search is never over and therefore neither is this post!

Sip, Smile, Stay Awhile

Coffee Reads: 

THE COFFEE HOUSE: A CULTURAL HISTORY 

When the first coffeehouse opened in London in 1652, customers were bewildered by this strange new drink from Turkey—hot, bitter, and black as soot. But those who tried coffee were soon won over, and more coffee-houses were opened across London, America, and Europe.

THE COFFEE COMPANION

In The Coffee Companion, coffee lovers will find a thoroughly spectacular guide to help them continue their coffee consumption, with only the best coffees of the world. This richly illustrated guide describes and rates more than 150 coffees from around the world, including tips on roasting, grinding, and blending beans to create the perfect brew.

THE COFFEE BOOK 
A freshly updated edition of the best introduction to one of the world’s most popular products, The Coffee Book is jammed full of facts, figures, cartoons, and commentary covering coffee from its first use in Ethiopia in the sixth century to the rise of Starbucks and the emergence of Fair Trade coffee in the twenty-first. The book explores the process of cultivation, harvesting, and roasting from bean to cup; surveys the social history of café society from the first coffeehouses in Constantinople to beatnik havens in Berkeley and Greenwich Village…

GOD IN A CUP 
In God in a Cup, journalist and late-blooming adventurer Michaele Weissman treks into an exotic and paradoxical realm of specialty coffee where the successful traveler must be part passionate coffee connoisseur, part ambitious entrepreneur, part activist, and part Indiana Jones. Her guides on the journey are the nation's most heralded coffee business hotshots—Counter Culture's Peter Giuliano, Intelligentsia's Geoff Watts, and Stump-town's Duane Sorenson.

The Professional Barista's Handbook 
FROM THE AUTHOR: When I began in the coffee business fourteen years ago, I read every book I could find about coffee. After reading all of those books, however, I felt as if I hadn't learned much about how to make great coffee. My coffee library was chock-full of colorful descriptions of brewing styles, growing regions, and recipes, with a few almost-unreadable scientific books mixed in. I would have traded in all of those books for one serious, practical book with relevant information about making great coffee in a café. Fourteen years later, I still haven't found that book. I know many other professionals as well as some obsessive nonprofessionals would like to find that same book I've been looking for. This book is my attempt to give it to them.

The Art and Craft of Coffee 
There is no other beverage that gives you a better way to travel the world than coffee. You can literally taste the volcanic lava from Sumatra, smell the spice fields of India, and lift your spirits to the Colombian mountaintops in your morning cup of joe. The Art and Craft of Coffee shows you how to get the most out of your coffee, from fresh-roasted bean to hand-crafted brew. 

UNCOMMON GROUNDS 

Uncommon Grounds tells the story of coffee from its discovery on a hill in ancient Abyssinia to the advent of Starbucks. In this updated edition of the classic work, Mark Pendergrast reviews the dramatic changes in coffee culture over the past decade, from the disastrous “Coffee Crisis” that caused global prices to plummet to the rise of the Fair Trade movement and the “third-wave” of quality-obsessed coffee connoisseurs.

BREWING JUSTICE 

Fair trade is a fast-growing alternative market intended to bring better prices and greater social justice to small farmers around the world. But is it working? This vivid study of coffee farmers in Mexico offers the first thorough investigation of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of fair trade. Based on extensive research in Zapotec indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca, Brewing Justice follows the members of the cooperative Michiza, whose organic coffee is sold on the international fair trade market. It compares these families to conventional farming families in the same region, who depend on local middlemen and are vulnerable to the fluctuations of the world coffee market.

COFFEE LIFE IN JAPAN 

This fascinating book--part ethnography, part memoir--traces Japan's vibrant café society over one hundred and thirty years. Merry White traces Japan's coffee craze from the turn of the twentieth century, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, to the present day, as uniquely Japanese ways with coffee surface in Europe and America. White's book takes up themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism. She shows how coffee and coffee spaces have been central to the formation of Japanese notions about the uses of public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure.

ALL ABOUT COFFEE

In 1922, William H. Ukers wrote the definitive work on coffee. As the founder of The Tea and Coffee Trade Journal, an industry magazine still active today, he spent seventeen years traveling the world and uncovering everything there was to know about both the bean and the beverage. From its historic roots and the drinking customs of different countries to its effects on the mind and the preparation of the perfect cup, this book captures all the rich and complex history of coffee.

THE BIRTH OF COFFEE

A simple cup of coffee: Millions of people greet the morning, take a break, or end a meal with this dark brew. In these brief moments, coffee's rich flavor and deep aroma are simple pleasures unquestioningly accepted, although few of us ever consider the origins of this evermore popular beverage. Yet 25 million people wake up thinking about coffee, not simply as a part of their morning routine, but as the whole of their workday. In The Birth of Coffee, Daniel Lorenzetti and Linda Rice Lorenzetti explore coffee's profound impact on people in coffee-growing nations.  Spanning four continents, the Lorenzettis' eloquent text and evocative photographs capture the places where coffee is more than a popular beverage, but a force in politics, economics, and history. 

Coffee Talk 

In this entertaining yet comprehensive book, food expert Morton Satin describes how, in recent times, coffee has become the magnet that draws people together for spirited interchanges of information and ideas. In the intellectual capitals of the world, coffeehouses have been and continue to be the venues where the great minds flock to discuss the latest developments in the arts, sciences, and social philosophies.

Tea Reads: 

Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties 

Tea is a comprehensive guide to non-herbal tea, the plant Camellia sinensis. Concise and authoritative text and an abundance of color photographs take the reader on an escorted tour of the world's tea-growing countries: China, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam and East Africa. Like a fine wine, it is the "terroir" -- a region's soil and climate -- that imparts unique characteristics to a tea. 

20,000 Secrets of TEA

The Most Effective Ways to Benefit from Nature’s Healing Herbs - 

An A-Z listing of common ailments followed by the teas best used to treat them

Instructions on how to create your own medicinal kitchen

Advice on creating your own tea blends

Descriptions of the top 100 herbs and their secret healing properties and much, much more!

THE BOOK of TEA

Teaism has shaped all aspects of Japanese life. The simplicity of tea infuses Japanese architecture and art, as well as its spiritual institutions. Okakura Kakuzo s book-length essay about tea and its role in Japanese culture was written in English and intended for the Western reader.

CULINARY TEA

This cutting-edge tome on one of the world’s oldest ingredients and most popular beverages will be an invaluable tool for both home and professional cooks. Gold and Stern offer new ways of looking at tea: the leaves with a history stretching thousands of years is now a secret weapon in the culinary arsenal.

THE ANCIENT ART OF TEA

The Ancient Art of Tea contains vital information to assist tea drinkers in their quest for yet another pot of delicious tea. This book teaches the two fundamental secrets to tea as practiced in ancient China—technique and taste. These exemplify some of the basic concepts of the philosophy of tea, which greatly enhances tea enjoyment. Not only an exhaustive source of tea knowledge, The Ancient Art of Tea is also a very important volume in the study of Chinese tea and is sure to become a classic in itself.

Healthy Teas

Healthy Teas is a delightful introduction to the history and healing properties of green tea, the health benefits of black teas, and the life-enhancing attributes of herbal and fruit infusions and decoctions. In Healthy Teas, author Tammy Safi has specially created the recipes to maximize the health benefits of all tea ingredients, whether they are fruits, exotic floral blends, or any of the many types of tea leaves.

The Tea Drinker's Handbook

In a skinny-no-whip-mocha-latte world, The Tea Drinker's Handbook is a refreshing return to America's roots in tea-drinking. Though tea is one of the most-consumed beverages in the world, second only to water, it is far from mundane. For both the lifelong tea drinker and the recent convert, The Tea Drinker's Handbook is an indispensable reference for anyone interested in all things tea. 

ALL THE TEA IN CHINA

This lavishly illustrated book explores both the historical lore of tea in China, Japan, and the West and the health and aesthetic virtues of the beverage. Chow and Kramer draw on English-language secondary literature and their experiences in China to argue that tea is at least as worthy of studious appreciation as wine, and they bolster this claim with intriguing descriptions of 50 famous Chinese teas. The authors also describe the role of tea-houses in China today, tell where and how to buy the unusual varieties they describe ("Lushan Cloud and Mist," "Green Snail Spring," etc.), give hints on how to brew a "nice cup of tea," and even tell how to get the most out of a tea bag! A charming and informative addition to any library collection. -Charles W. Hayford, Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill.

Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Book of Afternoon Tea

Now cooks everywhere can master the time-honored tradition of afternoon tea. Over 100 delicious, illustrated recipes teach the art of preparing traditional tea cakes and sandwiches and offer contemporary alternatives. Mackley tells how to brew the perfect cup of tea, covers the myriad of teas available, and presents menu suggestions.

The One Taste of Truth

Part history, part philosophy, part inspirational guide, The One Taste of Truth will connect you to the distinctive pleasure of sipping tea and allowing it to transport your mind and thoughts. This beautifully written book will appeal to tea lovers and anyone interested in tea culture, Chinese philosophy, and Zen. 

HEALING TEAS 

Healing Teas is a practical guide to the medicinal teas of the world. Through this informative resource you'll learn how to make teas-the most basic of all herbal remedies. Fifty-four herbs are listed and described in detail, with health indications and historical notes, scientific findings and preparation techniques.

THE TEA COMPANION

This comprehensive, authoritative guide to understanding, purchasing, and serving the world’s finest teas is beautifully illustrated with full-color photographs of a variety of tea leaves and herbs, as well as their countries of origin. Learn how to store tea so its aromas last, brew it properly for fullest enjoyment, and appreciate the many nuances of flavor to be found in this extraordinary drink. 

Aromatic Teas and Herbal Infusions 

With tea consumption in the United States at an all-time high, this book presents a complete reference to enjoying a variety of soothing teas from around the world--from tart Egyptian karkade to spicy masala from India to Moroccan mint--with recipes, serving ideas, and more. 

Cooking with Tea

In addition to the 100 sumptuous recipes for condiments, side-dishes, entrees, desserts, and tea beverages, readers will discover:

* The history and different types of tea

* How to brew their own tea for cooking

* Tips for buying and storing tea

* Techniques used for cooking with tea