Tea is second only to water as the most-consumed beverage in the world. When recent studies revealed green tea’s health benefits, North American consumption skyrocketed.

Tea is a comprehensive guide to non-herbal tea, the plant “Camellia sinensis.” Concise and authoritative text and an abundance of color photographs take the reader on an escorted tour of the world’s tea-growing countries: China, Japan, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam and East Africa. Like a fine wine, it is the “terroir”—a region’s soil and climate—that imparts unique characteristics to a tea.

The book covers black, green, white, yellow, oolong, pu’er, perfumed, aromatic and smoked teas. Topics include:

• An overview of the history of tea
• Tea varieties
• The worldwide export of tea
• How tea is processed
• Signature tea cultivars
• The art of making, serving and tasting tea, including tea ceremonies
• Tea in cooking, with 15 recipes from gourmet chefs
• A directory of teas

A set of detailed charts, tables and graphs shows the caffeine, antioxidant and other biochemical properties of 35 teas.

Tea aficionados go on organized tours of tea-growing regions, enroll in tasting seminars and earn professional certificates. For them and for the interested reader who enjoys the occasional cup, Tea is a beautifully presented homage to the world’s most beloved hot beverage.

A fascinating tour through the evolution of the human diet, and how we can improve our health by understanding our complicated history with food.

There are few areas of modern life that are burdened by as much information and advice, often contradictory, as our diet and health: eat a lot of meat, eat no meat; whole-grains are healthy, whole-grains are a disaster; eat everything in moderation; eat only certain foods—and on and on. In One Hundred Million Years of Food, biological anthropologist Stephen Le explains how cuisines of different cultures are a result of centuries of evolution, finely tuned to our biology and surroundings. Today many cultures have strayed from their ancestral diets, relying instead on mass-produced food often made with chemicals that may be contributing to a rise in so-called “Western diseases,” such as cancer, heart disease, and obesity.

Travelling around the world to places as far-flung as Vietnam, Kenya, India, and the US, Stephen Le introduces us to people who are growing, cooking, and eating food using both traditional and modern methods, striving for a sustainable, healthy diet. In clear, compelling arguments based on scientific research, Le contends that our ancestral diets provide the best first line of defense in protecting our health and providing a balanced diet. Fast-food diets, as well as strict regimens like paleo or vegan, in effect highjack our biology and ignore the complex nature of our bodies. In One Hundred Million Years of Food, Le takes us on a guided tour of evolution, demonstrating how our diets are the result of millions of years of history, and how we can return to a sustainable, healthier way of eating.