Over thousands of years and thousands of miles, tea has moved from one continent to another, creating in its wake a "tea culture" that affects each society's economic, spiritual, culinary and creative core. Author/Photographer Jennifer Sauer charts her adventures from tea room to tea house to tea nightclub across the Bay Area. If you want to be awed and impressed by one of the world's most illustrious teachers of Japanese tea ceremony, imbibe in the most elegant of British afternoon teas, compare teas and wits with a Chinese gong fu tea practitioner, or simply explore the nuances of tea and tea culture, this book will take you there. As the gateway to the new American tea culture, the Bay Area is home to a wealth of exceptional "tea people" who are hosts for the most delicious and engaging tea experiences in the world. You will meet them in these pages and be shown the way to find them in person. A tea glossary will get you up to speed on the basics and show you how aficionados judge teas, from terroir to harvest season to processing methods. Most importantly, you will be shown the way to tea and its many gifts: community, ritual, art, poetry, sanctuary, and vitality.