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silentchewy's review against another edition
A Bowl For A Coin is one of the densest, hardest-to-approach historical works I've ever read, beaten only really by Empire's Tracks. It is, however, a phenomenal work on Japanese Tea. Ferris traces the entire history of tea cultivation and trade from its introduction to Japan in the 800s up to the modern day when PET bottles (he loves calling them that) of Itoen green tea can be found in every vending machine in Japan. It's incredibly specific and makes no attempt to cater to a lay audience. I have reasonable knowledge of Japanese history and I got lost a few times in the minutiae of Edo-period currency. This book is directly responsible for getting me into green tea so that's a win, and Ferris does occasionally throw in a beautifully human story to illustrate a point he's trying to make, which I like a lot. Overall, this is a really interesting book for specialists and not really anyone else.
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