James Norwood Pratt, Tea Society

Biography

Born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and brought up on land which has been in his family since before the American Revolution, James Norwood Pratt was educated at Chapel Hill and abroad and published his first book on tea in 1982. He is the acknowledged instigator and prophet of America’s present Tea Renaissance and is quite possibly the world’s most widely-read authority on tea and tea lore, thanks to books translated into multiple languages and numerous columns, articles and print and TV interviews in US and overseas media. His landmark James Norwood Pratt’s Tea Dictionary was named Best New Publication by the World Tea Expo in 2010. He appears in several films and theatrical productions and lives with his wife Valerie Turner in San Francisco.

Literary works:
In California he wrote his first book The Wine Bibber’s Bible (1971). He is best known for his books on tea, including The Tea Lover’s Treasury (1982), “The Tea Lover’s Companion” (1995), and the whimsical Reading Tea Leaves (1996) authored as “by a Highland Seer.”

In 2000 he brought out James Norwood Pratt’s NEW Tea Lover’s Treasury saying “It’s the new tea lover who has forced America’s sleepy old tea trade to wake up.” A complete re-casting of his earlier work in the light of increased information, this book has been translated into German with the title Tee fur Geniesse and is widely used as a training manual in the US tea trade.

In 2010 appeared James Norwood Pratt’s Tea Dictionary, by any measure the most comprehensive work on tea since W.H. Ukers published All About Tea in 1935.

Tea trade milestones:
JNP was named Honorary Director of Imperial Tea Court, America’s first traditional Chinese teahouse which opened in 1993 in San Francisco. He has played a major role in disseminating China tea information and tea ways in America and the West. He first anglicized the name for the Chinese covered cup, for example, as “gaiwan” and on second thought changed the spelling to “guywan.” Both spellings are now found in English, French and German.

A popular speaker and teacher, Mr. Pratt has addressed audiences from Zurich, Switzerland (Le Club des Buveurs de The Suisse) and London’s Kew Gardens to Hangzhou (China Tea Research Institute). He served as International Juror at India’s first-ever tea competition, The Golden Leaf India Awards 2005, in Coonoor, India, and acted as consultant, teacher, taster or spokesman for various tea companies.

Profiling him as “The Renaissance man of the tea industry” in Fresh Cup magazine’s “1999 Tea Almanac”, Michelle Williams wrote: “Parts historian, connoisseur, and world-traveller, he has carved out a reputation as the consummate spokesman for US tea consumers. His wit and dedication to the beverage have helped spread the gospel of tea to tens of thousands of people.”

In 2007 he helped stage a Festival of Tea for Santa Fe Opera’s premier production of “Tea: A Mirror of Soul” by Chinese composer Tan Dun.

What Others Are Saying

A Life in Tea: James Norwood Pratt’s (not so) mad mission
by Julie Beals, Editor-in-Chief, Fresh Cup Magazine

After a short time with Norwood, one becomes imbued with the notion of tea as poetry, both being art forms that require reverence and reflection to fully appreciate.

Norwood’s ability to share and even project his own love of tea makes him the perfect spokesperson for all that is happening in the burgeoning U.S. tea industry.

“America’s new tea lovers are the people who have forced the tea trade to wake up,” Norwood says. “Elsewhere, tea has meant a certain way, a certain tradition, for centuries, but this is America! The American tea lover is heir to all the world’s tea drinking traditions, from Japanese tea ceremonies to Russian samovars to English scones in the afternoon. India chai, China green, you name it and we can claim it and make it ours. And that’s just what we are doing. In this respect, ours is the most innovative and exciting tea scene anywhere.”

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Tea Auteur: James Norwood Pratt
(from Tea Time Magazine, May/June 2006)

Intrepid by nature and sure in style, author James Norwood Pratt is a man with a mission: to discover and share with others the Tao of tea.

James Norwood Pratt is a man of great nuance, of mood, and perhaps even a bit of mystery. A conversation with the renowned tea author is likely to reveal both much and little about him: his interests, his impressive scope of knowledge on an array of topics, and, naturally, his steadfast love and appreciation of tea ...

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The Art of TEA-Ching
(From Patterson’s Beverage Journal, March 2005)

By the fourth Century A.D. tea was considered China’s most favored drink. By the eighth Century, tea ceremonies were a part of nobility and were imitated abroad. Tea already had a history of four thousand years in Asia before Europeans got their first taste, a mere 400 years ago.

Patterson’s met up with one of the country’s most popular teachers and authorities on all aspects of tea - James Norwood Pratt - at Chado Tea Room in West Hollywood, to discover the Art of Tea-Ching. The New American Tea Lover Often called America’s tea guru by people in the trade, Norwood wrote a classic book on tea in 1982 that initially set off the spark for today’s tea renaissance in the USA ...

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“There is none like him,” according to Devan Shah, CEO of International Tea Importers, who has been a friend and colleague since 1991. “He speaks without any baggage. Norwood’s only interest is promoting tea. His book, The New Tea Lover’s Treasury, is like the Bible of Tea. Wherever he speaks he makes a tremendous impression on everybody, and they all love him."

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Bruce Richardson, owner of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas (and Fresh Cup columnist), met him in 1994 at the Harney Tea Summit in Salisbury, Conn. It was the early days of the current American tea renaissance, and both men were speaking at the event. “He is truly a wordsmith,’ says Richardson. “I remember hearing him talk about tea with a reverence that made the teacup seem as important as the communion chalice. He was voicing what I “and all those present” had experienced about tea’s unique ability to bring people together.” And with more than just tea in common, Richardson and Norwood became fast friends. “We were both Southern boys, he from North Carolina and I from Kentucky,” says Richardson, adding lightheartedly, “Southerners tend to seek each other when surrounded by Yankees.”

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“He is a great raconteur,” says Michael Harney of Harney & Sons Fine Teas. “Set in the right direction, Norwood tells a marvelous tale.” Harney remembers him talking once about Russian Caravan tea, and how it was transported across the great deserts on camels. Only he couldn’t remember if they had “one hump or two.” Harney sizes up Norwood’s humor and approach to conversation this way: “He likes to get the two dots close, but allow you to connect them.” Norwood’s mission is indeed to connect with people, be it by common heritage or a funny story, or through tea.