BOOK REVIEW: The Spirit of Tea

“Science may be able to quantify tea’s effects on our bodies, but it cannot quantify its effect on our souls, and that’s where tea shares with us her deepest mysteries.” Tea aficionados will understand what author Frank Hadley Murphy means when he says that tea “calls us to our deepest selves and invites us to celebrate with it.” His book is a love song to the fragrant-leaved plant.
Murphy, a graduate of the American Tea Masters Association, studied at the Tea Research Institute in China and is a senior student of Taoist priest and tea master Roy Fong. He lectures nationwide and is the owner of the Jade Mountain Tea Company in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Tea is a “sacrament,” says Murphy, for its ability to open our souls to their own beauty and thus act as a mediator of divine grace. Tea calls us to be still, to listen to our unique inner voice, and to create sacred space for ourselves in our hectic day. The author shares the tea ritual he uses to stop the rush of time, while affirming that “there is no way to do it wrong.”