Reddit mentions of Tea: History, Terroires, Varieties

In terms of general knowledge of tea, I've found these books immensely helpful.

The Story of Tea This is the official textbook of the Tea Association of Canada's Tea Sommelier certificate program (of which I'm taking) and is probably the best tea book out there right now, in terms of amount of content and quality of content. At least of the ones I - and everybody I talk to in the community - have come across. Comes in paper and in e-book form.

Tea I've had the chance to talk to Kevin, one of the authors of this book. He, not to mention his co-authors, are immensely knowledgeable. He and the three others are taster-importers, and have been in the business for twenty years. This book has beautiful pictures, and is a great general resource on tea. I used to manage a tea shop owned by a taster-importer, and once I started, he held up the book and asked "Have you read this book? Yes? Good. Because it'd be the first thing you do on this job if you hadn't." What I'm trying to say is that it's a good book. Not on e-book, to my knowledge, but it's a great thing to have on hand.

The Tea Companion This was the first book I picked up on tea, and after a fair amount of time, it's stayed among the books I'd recommend to people. It's an incredible, gentle introduction to the world of tea.

Finally - and this may be a little audacious of me - but I'm currently writing a tea book. I'm in the rough draft stage currently, but I'm uploading all of my content for free on a blog I run. When the time comes to publish, I think I'll set up a pay-what-you-want for the e-book format. I've gotten the thumbs up from one of the co-founders of the Tea Guild of Canada, and like to think the information is pretty good and relevant. It's not done yet; not even halfway done, but if you want an opportunity for a bunch of free content on tea, which will eventually become a book, here's my blog.

Hope you can find some use! (and by the way, if you guys have a problem of me promoting my to-be book, I will totally take down the last link. I don't monetize it, I don't have a shop, and truly just want to share my knowledge of the lovely camellia sinensis plant, but just let me know and it'll be gone!)

Ontario-based tea snob chiming in.

Capital Tea has been one of the best tea shops I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with. Owner is a solid human being, and they have extremely accessibly priced, high quality teas. My favourite part of the shop is the absolute full transparency in its selling. Really recommend the shop.

Give Tao Tea Leaf a shot for China teas. They are a little on the pricey side, but honestly, they are the best China teas I've ever had. Tao, the owner, goes to China every year to buy from different estates. He grew up in China, and I believe his parents worked in tea, too, so he has the kind of knowledge and connections to get extremely good quality tea. Seriously. Buy some. Especially the "Award-winning" teas. They were picked out as winners, by professional cuppers, at the North American tea championship. Free shipping over $35. Can't go wrong. Don't bother buying non-China teas there.

For Indian teas, especially Darjeelings, go for House of Tea. They're online ordering isn't the best, but if you can make it into Toronto, they're worth checking out. In the springtime, call ahead and ask when they're getting their first flush Darjeelings in. It's better if you know what you're talking about before you go (I've had pretty unhelpful service there, a staff member didn't even know what I was asking when I inquired about the estate).

For blended teas, check out Herbal Infusions. The owner is, again, a solid guy, and a complete wizard with his tea blending. The mint cacao tea, and the grapefruit oolong have been two of the most memorable blended teas I have had.

Camellia Sinensis is really great, too, as /u/exmechanistic mentioned. All four taster-importers know what they're doing, and all of them are passionate about their work. I've met Kevin, one of the taster-importers and authors of this book, and they all seem crazy knowledgable about their product. There aesthetic is brilliant, their packaging, great. Their shop itself is all done perfectly. The one thing I'll say about them is that for the price point, the quality of some of their teas can be improved. I'm not blaming them at all, but if you have a very sensitive palate, some of the teas can be a little disappointing for the price. I was the tea consultant for a coffee shop that just opened in Toronto, and the first thing I did was taste like thirty samples from the shop. Some samples hit it out of the park. Others left something to be desired.

If you are interested in actual caffeine content in an infused cup, there's a LOT to it that results in wide variation. I recommend looking at the chapter on this in the book Tea: History, Terriors, Varieties which has a nice chart of test results with a wide variety of teas. A Google Scholar search will also give you studies on the subject, but many of them compare caffeine of dry leaf, or extracts of tea, rather than an infused cup of tea.

I love this one

I have about 50 books on tea and this is by far the most complete and factual guide to tea: http://www.amazon.com/Tea-Terroirs-Varieties-Kevin-Gascoyne/dp/1554079373

According to my copy of Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties, Anxi TGY has 17mg and Mucha TGY 12mg of caffiene in a serving (brewed from 5g of leaves).

6oz filter coffee, according to Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany, has 105mg caffiene, and 12oz cola has ~50mg. (The same source claims that 6oz 'Tea' (unspecified type) contains 35mg caffiene...)

Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties is recommended pretty often here, haven't gotten ahold of it yet though. I'm currently reading The Story of Tea which is very comprehensive, but the writing could be better, the author's style can be a little jumpy, sometimes they pick up a thread a couple of pages later or they repetitively restate information from a few pages back.