The Perfect Blend: 12 Book and Tea Pairings

Tea to Pair: Matcha 

This strong, vegetal powdered green tea is a perfect match for this novel that takes place in the turbulent months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Emi Kato, the daughter of a Japanese diplomat, is sent to an internment camp, where she meets and falls in love with Christian Lange, the son of German immigrants who have been arrested for un-American activities.  Their paths diverge; Emi returns to Japan and Christian enlists in the US Army, heading for the Pacific front and hoping to reunite with her.  But Emi’s first love, a Jewish refugee in Shanghai, may still have her heart.

Tea to Pair: Earl Grey 

This fragrant black tea, named for a nineteenth-century British prime minister, will enhance the experience of reading this captivating novel about Nan King, an oyster girl who becomes captivated by Kitty Butler, a male impersonator performing at the music hall.  They have a mutual attraction, and when Kitty asks Nan to accompany her to London as her dresser and companion, Nan embarks on a journey of self-discovery through a richly crafted, endlessly surprising Victorian world.

Tea to Pair: Orange Pekoe 

While orange pekoe does not actually have an orange flavor, despite its name, it will pair well with this novel, also named for citrus.  In the drought-ravaged wasteland that is near-future California, Luz and her partner Ray have refused to be evacuated.  They are squatting in a starlet’s abandoned mansion and subsisting on whatever they can scavenge.  But when they come in contact with a mysterious child, they start to want a different kind of life.

Tea to Pair: Fruit Tisane

While not technically a “tea,” fruit tisane is a bright, flavorful delight either hot or iced.  It is the perfect mate for this story about Eliza Roth, who co-owns a Brooklyn jewelry shop with her sister Sophie.  After learning of an ex’s engagement, Eliza accidentally posts a picture of herself wearing an engagement ring to the shop’s Instagram account.  Their 100,000 followers are thrilled for her and sales skyrocket.  Should she explain the mistake or continue the ruse?  Under financial pressure, she seeks out a fake fiancé.

Tea to Pair:  Ginger Lemon Tea 

Ginger lemon tea is warm and comforting, perfect for sipping when you aren’t feeling well.  A perfect adventure of the heart to curl up with when you have a cold is this tale about Ted Flask, a lonely man who fiercely loves his companion Lily, an aging dachshund.  When Lily’s health is threatened, Ted is willing to fight for her, no matter what.

Tea to Pair: Elderflower Green Tea

This unusual light, floral blend is a wonderful companion for this novel that combines folklore and science, suspense and romance. On a dark midwinter night in an ancient inn by the Thames, a grievously wounded stranger stumbles in with the dead body of a small child.  But hours later, the girl comes back to life.  Who is she and how has this happened?  As questions mount, three different families step up to claim the girl: a mother who thinks she is her kidnapped daughter, a couple who thinks she is the product of their son’s secret affair, and the parson’s housekeeper, who sees in the child the image of her younger sister.

Tea to Pair: Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea 

This bold, flavorful, surprising tea is a perfect mate for this book about Queenie Jenkins, a Jamaican British woman living in London who feels she doesn’t quite belong in either culture. After a messy breakup with her long-term boyfriend, she ends up rebounding with all the wrong men and wondering what she’s doing, who she is, and what she wants in life.

Tea to Pair: Blueberry White Tea 

The juxtaposition of the light flavor of white tea with the strong berry flavor is perfect for this suspenseful, emotional, and warm novel.  Eighty-four-year-old Florence has fallen in her apartment at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly.  As she waits for help to come, she thinks about her best friend, Elsie, and whether the terrible secret they share is about to be exposed.  And why does the new resident look exactly like a man who died sixty years ago?

Tea to Pair:  Just Rose Tisane 

There’s something inherently romantic about steeping tiny pink rosebuds and drinking a tea that smells and tastes like a flower garden.  It will go well with this emotional, charming romantic comedy.  Don Tillman is a brilliant yet socially inept professor of genetics.  He decides he wants a wife, so he develops a sixteen-page scientific survey to determine a candidate’s viability for the position.  But when he meets Rosie Jarman, a woman who in no way, shape, or form meets his specifications, Don may just realize that love isn’t as predictable as he thinks.

Tea to Pair: Swedish Söder Tea 

This quintessentially Swedish blend is a match for this novel taking place in Stockholm in 1793. Watchman Mikel Cardell and lawyer Cecil Winge team up to identify and solve the mystery of a bizarrely mutilated body found in a bog.  Their investigation will immerse them in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams, as  they peel back layer upon layer of the city’s labyrinthine society. 

Tea to Pair: Chinese Pu’er Tea 

This delicious Chinese tea plays an important role in this novel about tradition and mother-daughter bonds. Li-yan and her family are tea farmers who live in a remote mountain village.  When a stranger arrives, the villagers are exposed to the modern world for the first time. Li-yan begins to reject the customs she’s been taught all her life, and when she has a child out of wedlock with a man her parents don’t approve of, she refuses to allow the baby to be killed, as tradition would dictate, and leaves her at an orphanage.  As years pass, mother and child both search for meaning through the study of pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for generations.

Tea to Pair:  Chai Tea 

This warming, spiced tea is a perfect pairing for this moving novel about womanhood and the power of connection across cultures and borders.  It follows three women: Smita, an untouchable who flees her small Indian village to find a better life for herself and her daughter; Giulia, a woman who works in her father’s wig shop in Sicily who discovers the company is in a dire financial position and must find a way to save her family’s livelihood; and Sarah, a successful Canadian lawyer and mother whose life is shattered by a cancer diagnosis.