I would definitely second Shen on Pratt's "Tea New Lover's Treasury". I
think Pratt is supposed to be coming out with one or more new books in the
near future.

"Tea Basics" by Rasmussen and Rhinehard is a decent, very basic intro for
Westerners to the tea world, though more toward the Euro/Brit subset
thereof.

"Tea and Chinese Culture" by Ling Wang is lightweight, but an interesting
intro for Westerners to the subject, with nice pictures.

"The Book of Tea" by Stella, Borchard and Donzel (preface by Burgess) has
lots of very nice pictures, though I'm not sure how trustworthy some of the
info is.

"First Step to Chinese Puerh Tea", by Chan Kam Pong is the first and only
book on Puer in English; it's a little lightweight, and half the book is
just a catalog of Puer cakes, and the editing leaves something to be
desired, but... it's the only book on Puer in English, so far.

I've read, but don't have (because it's out of print), THE CHINESE ART OF
TEA, by John Blofeld, which as I recall was pretty good - I wish I could
find a good copy for a reasonable price.

You should also check recent posts on the Cha Dao tea blog
(http://chadao.blogspot.com/), which has been reviewing tea books - some
new, some old - over the past month or two.

Doug

"pgwk" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>I am always looking for good books on tea and finding very few. I
> offer to assemble a bibliography for this group if you will let me
> know books you have found interesting and useful, with a short summary
> of what makes the book special
>