All the Tea in China

Virginia Gillham is the senior librarian at Wilfrid Laurier University
and an international figure-skating judge.

The first 17 pages of this book tells you more about tea (both the drink
itself and the customary late-afternoon indulgence) than you ever
thought there was to know.

The author, who now lives in Canada, spent her childhood as part of an
upper-class British family living in India. She describes her
grandmother as “one of the last direct descendants of a founder of the
East India Company.” Tea the drink and tea the custom were integral
parts of her youth, and she neatly capsulizes the history and customs
connected to both.

The balance of the book offers tantalizing recipes for tea drinks,
savories, cakes, pastries, breads, sandwiches, and hot dishes
appropriately served with tea as a light meal. This is an entertaining
and useful novelty cookbook.