Tasting qualities : the past and future of tea
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Tasting qualities : the past and future of tea
Produced by Amazon, c2020
- : pbk
- Other Title
-
Atelier: ethnographic inquiry in the twenty-first century
Related Bibliography 1 items
Available at / 1 libraries
-
No Libraries matched.
- Remove all filters.
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-225) and index
Reprint. Originally published: Oakland, Calif. : University of California Press, c2020
Original issued in series: Atelier: ethnographic inquiry in the twenty-first century ; 5
Description and Table of Contents
Description
What is the role of quality in contemporary capitalism? How is a product as ordinary as a bag of tea judged for its quality? In her innovative study, Sarah Besky addresses these questions by going inside an Indian auction house where experts taste and appraise mass-market black tea, one of the world's most recognized commodities. Pairing rich historical data with ethnographic research among agronomists, professional tea tasters and traders, and tea plantation workers, Besky shows how the meaning of quality has been subjected to nearly constant experimentation and debate throughout the history of the tea industry. Working across fields of political economy, science and technology studies, and sensory ethnography, Tasting Qualities argues for an approach to quality that sees it not as a final destination for economic, imperial, or post-imperial projects but as an opening for those projects.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Production of Quality
1 * The Work of Taste
2 * The Auction and the Archive
3 * The Problem with Blending
4 * The Science of Quality
5 * The Quality of Cheap Tea
6 * The Quality of Markets
Conclusion: The Endurance of Quality
Notes
Bibliography
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
