Although tea had been known and consumed in China and Japan for centuries, it was only in the seventeenth century that Londoners first began drinking it. Over the next two hundred years, its stimulating properties seduced all of British society, as tea found its way into cottages and castles alike. One of the first truly global commodities, tea has also, today, come to epitomize British culture and identity. This impressively detailed book offers a rich cultural history of tea, from its ancient origins in China to its spread around the world. The authors recount tea’s arrival in London and follow its increasing salability and import via the East India Company throughout the eighteenth century, inaugurating the first regular exchange—both commercial and cultural—between China and Britain. They look at European scientists’ struggles to understand tea’s history and medicinal properties, and they recount the ways its delicate flavor and exotic preparation have enchanted poets and artists. Exploring everything from its everyday use in social settings to the political and economic controversies it has stirred—such as the Boston Tea Party and the First Opium War—they offer a multilayered look at what was ultimately an imperial industry, a collusion—and often clash—between the world’s greatest powers over control of a simple beverage that has become an enduring pastime.
...MoreReview John McAleer (2016) Review of "Empire of Tea: The Asian Leaf that Conquered the World". Archives of Natural History (pp. 377-379).
Similar Citations
Book
Saberi, Helen;
(2010)
Tea: A Global History
(/isis/citation/CBB001500553/)
Chapter
RICHARD COULTON;
(2021)
Knowing and Growing Tea: China, Britain, and the Formation of a Modern Global Commodity
(/isis/citation/CBB737358020/)
Book
Andrew B. Liu;
(2020)
Tea War: a history of capitalism in China and India
(/isis/citation/CBB495296310/)
Article
Sarah Besky;
(June 2020)
Empire and indigestion: Materializing tannins in the Indian tea industry
(/isis/citation/CBB995845297/)
Book
Sharma, Jayeeta;
(2011)
Empire's Garden: Assam and the Making of India
(/isis/citation/CBB001421813/)
Article
Delbourgo, James;
(2011)
Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate and the Whole History of the Cacao
(/isis/citation/CBB001320681/)
Chapter
Liss, Robert;
(2009)
Frontier Tales: Tokugawa Japan in Translation
(/isis/citation/CBB000954193/)
Book
Keiko Nagase-Reimer;
(2014)
Copper in the Early Modern Sino-Japanese trade
(/isis/citation/CBB792039626/)
Book
Dyke, Paul Arthur Van;
(2011)
Merchants of Canton and Macao: Politics and Strategies in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Trade
(/isis/citation/CBB001421570/)
Chapter
Ling-Yeong, Chin;
(2012)
Zeng He: Navigator, Discover, and Diplomat
(/isis/citation/CBB001320715/)
Article
Bullock, April;
(2012)
The Cosmopolitan Cookbook: Class, Taste, and Foreign Foods in Victorian Cookery Books
(/isis/citation/CBB001320905/)
Book
Carey, Daniel;
(2012)
Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB001421379/)
Article
Hellyer, Robert;
(2013)
The West, the East, and the Insular Middle: Trading Systems, Demand, and Labour in the Integration of the Pacific, 1750--1875
(/isis/citation/CBB001421539/)
Book
Campbell, Gwyn;
Stanziani, Alessando;
(2013)
Bonded Labour and Debt in the Indian Ocean World
(/isis/citation/CBB001421572/)
Article
Mosby, Ian;
(2009)
“That Won-Ton Soup Headache”: The Chinese Restaurant Syndrome, MSG and the Making of American Food, 1968--1980
(/isis/citation/CBB000932791/)
Thesis
Backus, Irene;
(2014)
Asia Materialized: Perceptions of China in Renaissance Florence
(/isis/citation/CBB001567620/)
Book
Unger, Richard W.;
(2011)
Shipping and Economic Growth 1350--1850
(/isis/citation/CBB001421459/)
Chapter
Ts'un-Yan, Liu;
(2012)
East Meets West: The Impact on China and Her Response
(/isis/citation/CBB001320714/)
Article
Fiskesjö, Magnus;
(2010)
Mining, History, and the Anti-State Wa: The Politics of Autonomy between Burma and China
(/isis/citation/CBB001421524/)
Book
Gascoigne, John;
(2014)
Encountering the Pacific in the Age of Enlightenment
(/isis/citation/CBB001421627/)
Be the first to comment!