by April Corbin

The Tea Arts Institute has collaborated with Kyoto Journal for a 96-page issue devoted to the subject of tea.

The issue, which will be available beginning Jan. 15, features a wide variety of articles – from reports on tea in 9th century China, to contemporary pieces on tea in Vietnam and even fiction and poetry.

The issue’s guest editor, the Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit organization Tea Arts Institute, chose collaborators from Laos, Burma, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, India, Tibet, Vietnam, France, Hong Kong and the U.S.

Prominent members of the tea industry also contributed to the journal: Ray Fong (co-founder of San Francisco-based Imperial Tea Court), Wing Chi Ip (founder of Hong Kong-based Lock Cha), Kevin Gascoyne (founder of Sri Lanka-based Kyela Teas), Winnie Yu (founder of Berkeley, Calif.-based Teance) and Sebastian Beckwith (co founder of Cornwall Bridge, Conn.-based In Pursuit of Tea).

“The idea was to take readers on a journey for a glimpse of the range of the wide tea world – people, places, art, literature, history, metaphor, medicine, memory and most importantly, taste/sensation,” Tea Arts Institute Executive Director Gaetano Kazuo Maida explained.

Despite the breadth of information found in the issue, Maida recognized the Kyoto Journal only scratches the surface of the industry.

“This is by no means definitive or encyclopedic,” he said. “There’s an infinite amount of material.”