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A Dark History of Tea
A Dark History of Tea explores our long relationship with this most revered of hot beverages. Renowned food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins digs into the history of one of the world’s oldest drinks, tracing the significance of tea on the tables of both the wealthy and the working classes.
This humble herbal infusion has been used in burial rituals and as a dowry payment for aristocrats. It has fueled wars, spelled fortunes and built empires, gradually forming an integral part of the cultural fabric of British life. This book delves into the distasteful history of a drink that is now considered to be quintessentially British. It tells a story of cruelty, slavery and illicit opium smuggling, all practices that enabled tea to flow into the cups of British society.
The story of tea takes the reader on a fascinating journey through myth, fable and folklore; through stories of swindling, adulteration, greed and war. Learn of the importance of tea to the naval trade and how it spurred the first impulses of modern capitalism. Discover how tea played a part in the globalization of the world economy.
Scattered throughout this fascinating history are interesting facts about tea etiquette and tradition. Discover the link between tea and seduction and read about the illicit liaisons that occurred as a result of teatime meetings. This is an enjoyable rollercoaster of dark discoveries that will cast away any thoughts of tea as something that merely accompanies breaks, sit downs and biscuits.
This humble herbal infusion has been used in burial rituals and as a dowry payment for aristocrats. It has fueled wars, spelled fortunes and built empires, gradually forming an integral part of the cultural fabric of British life. This book delves into the distasteful history of a drink that is now considered to be quintessentially British. It tells a story of cruelty, slavery and illicit opium smuggling, all practices that enabled tea to flow into the cups of British society.
The story of tea takes the reader on a fascinating journey through myth, fable and folklore; through stories of swindling, adulteration, greed and war. Learn of the importance of tea to the naval trade and how it spurred the first impulses of modern capitalism. Discover how tea played a part in the globalization of the world economy.
Scattered throughout this fascinating history are interesting facts about tea etiquette and tradition. Discover the link between tea and seduction and read about the illicit liaisons that occurred as a result of teatime meetings. This is an enjoyable rollercoaster of dark discoveries that will cast away any thoughts of tea as something that merely accompanies breaks, sit downs and biscuits.
184 pages, Paperback
First published June 19, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
September 7, 2020
A Dark History of Tea looks at our long relationship with the humble cup of tea. Food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins traces tea's origins from its accidental discovery in China to its rise to the tables of the high and mighty.
‘A Dark History of Tea’ – as the name suggests – is not a happy history lesson and indeed focuses on every dark aspect of Tea’s history. This book starts with discovery of tea in China. The bulk of the book is concerned with the rise of tea in China and the tea trade by EIC, smuggling and adulteration. The Opium Wars between China and England, how tea was planted in India, the tea auctions in Britain and the life of the workers on these tea plantations formed rest of the book. The book also discusses about how the British developed etiquette, traditions, superstitions related to tea drinking and even witchcraft and readings of tea leaves finds a mention. All in all, the book tries to cover, as many interesting facts related to tea as it can.
The best thing about the book is that it does not try to whitewash the horrors that have been committed in the name of tea trade; from colonization, Opium Wars to Slavery. It even talks about Victorian England’s addiction to opium and gin and the resulting impact on the masses.
The book was interesting but at times, there was a lot of repetition (about adulteration or drug use in England) and order of events kept going back and forth at times. This book is primarily about Britain's dark history with tea, and the East India Company’s trade with China/India. It mostly ignored the rise of tea’s popularity in rest of the world. I also found the chapters on drug use, witchcraft and the readings of tea leaves, not totally related to the topic.
Overall, this was an interesting book, and a quick read on tea’s history as a popular drink in the modern times. If you are looking to read an alternative (but real) take on the history of tea, this is the book you should read.
Many thanks to the publishers Pen & Sword and Netgalley for the ARC.
‘A Dark History of Tea’ – as the name suggests – is not a happy history lesson and indeed focuses on every dark aspect of Tea’s history. This book starts with discovery of tea in China. The bulk of the book is concerned with the rise of tea in China and the tea trade by EIC, smuggling and adulteration. The Opium Wars between China and England, how tea was planted in India, the tea auctions in Britain and the life of the workers on these tea plantations formed rest of the book. The book also discusses about how the British developed etiquette, traditions, superstitions related to tea drinking and even witchcraft and readings of tea leaves finds a mention. All in all, the book tries to cover, as many interesting facts related to tea as it can.
The best thing about the book is that it does not try to whitewash the horrors that have been committed in the name of tea trade; from colonization, Opium Wars to Slavery. It even talks about Victorian England’s addiction to opium and gin and the resulting impact on the masses.
The book was interesting but at times, there was a lot of repetition (about adulteration or drug use in England) and order of events kept going back and forth at times. This book is primarily about Britain's dark history with tea, and the East India Company’s trade with China/India. It mostly ignored the rise of tea’s popularity in rest of the world. I also found the chapters on drug use, witchcraft and the readings of tea leaves, not totally related to the topic.
Overall, this was an interesting book, and a quick read on tea’s history as a popular drink in the modern times. If you are looking to read an alternative (but real) take on the history of tea, this is the book you should read.
Many thanks to the publishers Pen & Sword and Netgalley for the ARC.
June 3, 2020
I liked this but blimey it's wordy. It's an enjoyable history of the British history of tea; only the opening chapter focuses on China & very interesting. It covers a lot if ground including the introduction of opium wars, the relationship with India and even witchcraft. For a fairly short book it does pack in a lot of information and I think for me a few too many words as it made it feel quite heavy sometimes. Overall, enjoyable and I learnt quite a bit.
May 21, 2020
This was definitely an interesting book to flip through! Had some intersting back ground stories about tea, how it became popular and importsnt in society! My favourite chapter was the one about witchcraft!
It also had some amazing drawings!
It also had some amazing drawings!
May 9, 2020
thanks to netgalley and the publishers for a free copy in return for open and honest review
Tea we know came from china and India and it has become the British national drink, this book looks at the dark side of that drink with the opium wars with China and how things were added to loose tea to baulk it out. the book itself is written that it can be easily read and also looks at other parts of the tea story which make this book interesting and should be a must read for tea lovers.
Tea we know came from china and India and it has become the British national drink, this book looks at the dark side of that drink with the opium wars with China and how things were added to loose tea to baulk it out. the book itself is written that it can be easily read and also looks at other parts of the tea story which make this book interesting and should be a must read for tea lovers.
May 10, 2020
A Dark History of Tea by Seren Charrington Hollins is a concisely solid overview of the history of British tea drinking. As the title suggests, Hollins doesn’t gloss over the many problematic elements of that history, such as the racism and imperialism that lay behind it for so long.
Hollins offers up a number of chapters focusing on various aspects of the tea trade, such as how it helped contribute to the Opium Wars with China, the way its cost kept it from being widely consumed until the 18th Century, the shift from Chinese to Indian tea (and the accordant horrible conditions on Britain’s tea plantations in India), the various accoutrements of social tea (teapots, sugar tongs, etc.), how high taxes created a market for violent smugglers, the ways in which tea was adulterated with a range of materials that at best only served to make the tea less like tea and at their worst literally poisoned their drinkers. We even hear of several murders where tea was an integral part of the crime. Finally, Hollins closes with a tea’s “magical” attributes across history and its health (loosely defined) benefits.
On the one hand, the structure allows for more focused chapters where we get to follow a threat of tea history from beginning to end. On the other hand, it does make for a somewhat zig-zagging kind reading as we move from the 1700s say to the late 1800s, then go back to the 1700s and move forward another one or two centuries, then go back to the 1700s’ etc. There’s also a surprising amount of repetition in the book, which may be a product of the structure as well. To be fair, that’s something I’ve noticed, albeit to differing degrees, in nearly all the Pen and Sword books I’ve reviewed. This wasn’t the most egregious, but it was close.
In terms of content, it’s a layperson’s book, not an academic history, and as such it’s both quite readable, accessible, and clear and also more of a shallow overview rather than a dig-deep kind of history. To be clear, I’m using shallow in merely a descriptive sense, not a pejorative one. It’s not meant to dig deep, and as such it effectively achieves its goal. There’s a lot of interesting information in here, some of which I knew and some I didn’t, such as how tea was used as currency in ancient China or the amount of violence centered on the tea smuggling trade. Interestingly, one of my favorite parts actually didn’t deal with tea but with the way opium products were so deeply integrated into Victorian life. My own preference would have been for more of the early history in China and Japan, more on the conditions and methods of Britain’s tea plantations in India, and less on the superstitions and “magic,” but that’s a personal preference. That said, Hollins does offer up a nice bibliography for further reading for those who, like me, might be more interested to learn more about certain aspects. Recommended as a narrowly focused introduction to tea.
Hollins offers up a number of chapters focusing on various aspects of the tea trade, such as how it helped contribute to the Opium Wars with China, the way its cost kept it from being widely consumed until the 18th Century, the shift from Chinese to Indian tea (and the accordant horrible conditions on Britain’s tea plantations in India), the various accoutrements of social tea (teapots, sugar tongs, etc.), how high taxes created a market for violent smugglers, the ways in which tea was adulterated with a range of materials that at best only served to make the tea less like tea and at their worst literally poisoned their drinkers. We even hear of several murders where tea was an integral part of the crime. Finally, Hollins closes with a tea’s “magical” attributes across history and its health (loosely defined) benefits.
On the one hand, the structure allows for more focused chapters where we get to follow a threat of tea history from beginning to end. On the other hand, it does make for a somewhat zig-zagging kind reading as we move from the 1700s say to the late 1800s, then go back to the 1700s and move forward another one or two centuries, then go back to the 1700s’ etc. There’s also a surprising amount of repetition in the book, which may be a product of the structure as well. To be fair, that’s something I’ve noticed, albeit to differing degrees, in nearly all the Pen and Sword books I’ve reviewed. This wasn’t the most egregious, but it was close.
In terms of content, it’s a layperson’s book, not an academic history, and as such it’s both quite readable, accessible, and clear and also more of a shallow overview rather than a dig-deep kind of history. To be clear, I’m using shallow in merely a descriptive sense, not a pejorative one. It’s not meant to dig deep, and as such it effectively achieves its goal. There’s a lot of interesting information in here, some of which I knew and some I didn’t, such as how tea was used as currency in ancient China or the amount of violence centered on the tea smuggling trade. Interestingly, one of my favorite parts actually didn’t deal with tea but with the way opium products were so deeply integrated into Victorian life. My own preference would have been for more of the early history in China and Japan, more on the conditions and methods of Britain’s tea plantations in India, and less on the superstitions and “magic,” but that’s a personal preference. That said, Hollins does offer up a nice bibliography for further reading for those who, like me, might be more interested to learn more about certain aspects. Recommended as a narrowly focused introduction to tea.
July 19, 2020
A Dark History of Tea looks at our long relationship with this most revered of hot beverages. Renowned food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins digs into the history of one of the world’s oldest beverages, tracing tea's significance on the tables of the high and mighty as well as providing relief for workers who had to contend with the ardours of manual labour.
As a big fan of this drink, when I saw this book appear on NetGalley recently, I was intrigued. You hear about events such as the Boston Tea Party but that’s kind of it and really there is so much more to tea than that, and the author in this book truly spills the tea on this drink’s roots. Covering a range of periods and areas, even ones I didn’t expect! For example witchcraft this book focuses on China in the beginning and then of course the links between tea and colonialism in the British Empire.
Though dense in moments, which sometimes put me off a little, this book does deliver in a short read a lot of fascinating and intriguing information and if you are interested by the area this is perfect for you, but if you are looking for citations then there are only a few, so I would recommend a more thorough book.
An insight into the English perspective of tea and its history with colonialism and war, A Dark History Of Tea certainly makes clear that what we drink today and is considered deeply British, is just another thing we took when we took over countries.
(I received this book from Netgalley for honest review).
March 4, 2021
Book: A Dark History of Tea
Author: Seren Charrington Hollins
Format: Kindle Edition
Publisher: Pen and Sword History (8 July 2020)
Language: English
File size: 13268 KB
Print length: 248 pages
Price: 1008/-
The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat,
The second shatters the walls of my lonely sadness,
The third searches the dry rivulets of my soul to find the stories
of five thousand scrolls.
With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through
my pores.
The fifth purifies my flesh and bone.
With the sixth I am in touch with the immortals.
The seventh gives such pleasure I can hardly bear.
The fresh wind blows through my wings
As I make my way to Penglai.
—Lu Tong
The word tea originates from the Chinese Amoy word ‘t’e’, pronounced ‘tay’. The Dutch, who were the first to import tea into Europe from the port of Amoy in Fujian Province, called it ‘thee’, which became ‘tea’ in English.
The Chinese sip it from petite cups, the Japanese whisk it. In America they serve it iced. The Tibetans add butter. The Russians serve with lemon. Mint is added in North Africa. Afghans flavour it with cardamom. The Irish and the British drink it by the gallon with milk and sugar. The Indians boil it with condensed milk. In Australia it is brewed in a ‘billy’ can.
It is the second most popular beverage in the world after water.
It douses thirst, cures and prolongs. It is drunk for pleasure and for wellbeing. Wherever and however it is taken, tea brings comfort, concord, courtesy, conviviality and warmth. From its legendary beginnings in China to its present-day popularity, tea has had a long and vivid history.
Its story is steeped in ritual and religion, adventure and enterprise, smuggling and revolution, literature and social change.
The Mandarin word for tea is cha, which became ch’a (pronounced tcha) in Cantonese. Variations passed into other languages, becoming ‘chai’ in India, Afghanistan, Persia, Russia and Turkish and ‘shai’ in Arabic. ‘Cha’ or ‘char’ was the form in which it first appeared in English in the late 16th century and the word still survives colloquially in the phrase ‘a cup of char’.
At first primarily valued for its health benefits, drinking tea was later discovered by Buddhists to be an effective way of keeping awake during long hours of meditation. The Japanese call tea ‘O Cha’, meaning honourable tea, and have evolved the complicated ritual of the tea ceremony.
In times of trouble and strife or after a laborious day, the desire for a nice cup of tea and a sit down can be overwhelmingly strong. One reason that tea makes us feel good is because it contains caffeine, perking us up and refreshing us while at the same time its healthful polyphenols calm and soothe us.
But this particular book, as the title declares is ‘Dark History’.
Why dark, one should guess!!
It is dark due to the reason that while there is never-ending bliss in taking tea, the painted veil of refinement and civilisation that tea wears hides a much darker history.
It is dark since, despite the fact that today nothing seems more delightful and serene than drinking tea and tea enjoyment is seen as one of life’s most basic and natural pleasures, the rise of tea consumption in Europe and Britain is stained with tears and corruption.
Indeed, the shady underside of tea is a tale of death, drug addiction, exploitation, monopolies, wars and ethnic displacement. While tea became the Western world’s favourite beverage it instigated revolution and two wars.
Death by tea was a very real possibility and you’d be lucky if your tea was only adulterated with cherry leaves, acting as a rather unwanted, strong laxative. As fears escalated about tea being the trigger for hysteria and insomnia, the real issue was it carrying the risk of being toxic through widespread adulteration.
Unscrupulous businessmen in the Chinese city of Guangzhou (Canton) and England resorted to all kinds of unseemly practices to pad out consignments of green tea. In 1766 an earlier Act of Parliament levying a fine on adulterators was made more stringent by the threat of imprisonment.
However, with so much profit to be made from adulteration, the threat of incarceration was not an effective deterrent. Dishonest dealers continued to swindle tea-lovers by adding iron filings and the leaves of other plants, such as hawthorn, and even dying leaves with verdigris, Prussian blue, Dutch pink, ferrous sulphate, copper carbonate and sheep’s dung.
The author has divided this book into ten chapters:
Chapter 1: The Origins of Tea – The opening chapter speaks of the fact that the origin of tea is shrouded in myths and stories, so much so that it is hard to institute its accurate history from the rich tapestry of mythology. From Chinese emperors to Portuguese princesses, the history of tea is as rich and varied as its tasting notes.
Chapter 2: Growth in Europe & Britain - Tea is often considered a great British tradition and as such very few stop to consider it strange how an Oriental infusion has conquered the world, impacting the relatively recent history of the West. This chapter speaks of the manner in which the tea leaf has enchanted Europe and Britain unlike any other. This chapter narrates the process, how ‘leaf gold’ would come to dominate household spending and occupy a place in the homes and workplaces of the wealthy and poor in Europe and Britain alike.
Chapter 3: Tea Demand: Opium, Slums and Prostitutes – This chapter shows how the demand for tea rose rapidly from the mid-17th century. The amount drunk per person was increasing and Britain was destined to become enslaved to the exotic beverage. The demand was fulfilled by the East India Company.
It is with this chapter that the ‘Dark’ aspects truly emerge.
Opium was a growing concern in England. The topic of addiction raged and the scales of public opinion tipped between seeing the addicted as morally bankrupt criminals or victims of circumstance. Public opinion about the opium epidemic was strongly influenced by professional, social, political and international interests.
Therein came the Opium Wars.
However, despite all the issues surrounding opium and the direct link between the import of tea and opium, the popularity of tea never waned. Trade with China had brought widespread familiarity with tea as well as other foreign goods, so much so that tea was now an everyday commodity and had become a necessity in British life.
The Opium Wars did not halt British trade with China. In fact, after the Treaty of Nanking, which marked the end of the First Opium War, trade increased.
Chapter 4: Tea Addiction, Smuggling, Swindle and Taxation – This chapter takes the raders furtherdown the rabbit hole of darkness.
Britain had developed a taste for tea and as the middle classes slurped, sipped and savoured the brew, the taxes and trade monopoly kept the prices high. 18th century Britain was coloured by the phenomenal increase in the number and weightiness of taxes: from the Revolution to the defeat of Napoleon, tax revenues leapt from around £2 million to nearly £80 million.
Despite these huge tax hikes the government did not have a limitless ability to collect taxes, for in addition to the popular public opposition to taxes on everyday commodities such as tobacco, wine, ale and cider, the government’s ability to levy tax was also hampered by fraud and smuggling, thus limiting their ability to enforce the payment of duties levied, and the amount of tax that a particular commodity could yield.
Chapter 5: Tea and Seduction – This interesting chapter shows that from the late 18th century onwards, tea and seduction became synonymous. Many popular plays of the time cited the social importance of taking tea. Increasingly, such plays hinted at the possibility of sexual tension and playfulness. While the eighteenth-century leisure gardens offered tea in curtained cubicles, the rise of taking tea as a sociable activity at home was an opportunity for middle-class sexual play.
Chapter 6: The Kill or Cure Tea Debate – This chapter establishes that as tea’s popularity swelled amongst all ranks of society, so too did the controversy about the apparent evils of excessive tea drinking. In a society awash with gloomy gin houses, where everything from infanticide to prostitution was attributed to alcoholism, another drug existed in liquid form that nurtured an addiction that was considered every bit as dangerous. Tea was fast replacing gin as the blight on moral and physical well-being according to the medical community. Bootleggers sold their gut-rot gin under fancy names such as ‘Cuckold’s Comfort’, ‘Ladies’ Delight’ and ‘Knock Me Down’ and gin gnawed at London’s underbelly, sending it into a morbid state of social and moral decay. It was aptly nicknamed ‘Mothers’ Ruin’, as many women resorted to drinking cheap ‘bathtub gin’ in order to drown their sorrows. As a result, children were neglected and sometimes daughters were sold into prostitution.
Chapter 7: The British Tradition of Tea - The history of tea and its introduction to Britain spelled a sequence of social transformations. The British steadily accepted tea consumption as a sign of enhancement and ultimately all social classes enjoyed the drink, but as tea flourished and an image of tea as genteel and polite emerged, the concept of a ‘proper cup of tea’ touted by the advertisers hid a far from unblemished record.
Chapter 8: The Tainted Tea of Lost Assam – This chapter focusses exclusively on Assam. Within a decade of the first London sale of Assam tea in 1839, the riverboats on Assam’s Brahmaputra River were full of young, ambitious British men looking to make their fortune. Filled with excitement over building lives as tea planters and dealers, they brought their ‘essentials’ from home, which included golf clubs and pedigree dogs.
The Assamese did not readily take to the roles offered in the tea gardens and colonial officials soon condemned the local peasants as the epitome of the ‘lazy native’.
Indeed, the reluctance of the Assamese to engage in the work and accept the conditions was conveniently blamed on ‘opium mania’, which was singled out as the prime reason for the decline of Assamese society.
Chapter 9: Tea in British Culture: Changing Customs and Rituals – This chapter focusses on Britain’s obsession with tea. It speaks of how British lives are awash with tea and the drink is surrounded by controversies, such as whether milk should be added first or last, which always fuels furious debates. How to make tea is often the subject of heated arguments, with everyone having their own particular set of golden rules.
Brewing one’s perfect cuppa at home is all well and good, but tea is not just the drink of break times and breakfast: it has an important social role to play. This chapter traces the process as to how by the turn of the 19th century, tea had become an important part of daily life and its associated rituals and functions were distinctly British.
Chapter 10: Witchcraft, Scrying and Sorcery – The concluding chapter is by far th most enjoyable of the entire book. The author says that, ‘It isn’t surprising to see tea feature in so many scandals and superstitions, given its central and long-standing function in British social life.
There is no doubt that tea is magical stuff, capable of reviving weary souls and refreshing stagnant conversations.’ However, aside from providing the key to a refreshing break, tea is actually believed to have qualities deeply rooted in magic lore. Wise women, alchemists and witches in folktales have all searched for the perfect brew to heal, to help and to achieve their every will.
Tea magic is in fact an ancient and very powerful art that employs belief and divination. This chapter shows, how cunning women, kitchen witches and herbalists alike have all found wisdom in the use of herbs; from prosperity spells to those used to banish nightmares, tea leaves have appeared in a variety of concoctions.
I found this book both pleasurable and didactic for two key reasons: a) the language was coherent and chapters reserved and b) the usage of a large number of anecdotes and cross-references from a variety of texts.
If you are a lover of Tea, this is a must-read for you.
Author: Seren Charrington Hollins
Format: Kindle Edition
Publisher: Pen and Sword History (8 July 2020)
Language: English
File size: 13268 KB
Print length: 248 pages
Price: 1008/-
The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat,
The second shatters the walls of my lonely sadness,
The third searches the dry rivulets of my soul to find the stories
of five thousand scrolls.
With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through
my pores.
The fifth purifies my flesh and bone.
With the sixth I am in touch with the immortals.
The seventh gives such pleasure I can hardly bear.
The fresh wind blows through my wings
As I make my way to Penglai.
—Lu Tong
The word tea originates from the Chinese Amoy word ‘t’e’, pronounced ‘tay’. The Dutch, who were the first to import tea into Europe from the port of Amoy in Fujian Province, called it ‘thee’, which became ‘tea’ in English.
The Chinese sip it from petite cups, the Japanese whisk it. In America they serve it iced. The Tibetans add butter. The Russians serve with lemon. Mint is added in North Africa. Afghans flavour it with cardamom. The Irish and the British drink it by the gallon with milk and sugar. The Indians boil it with condensed milk. In Australia it is brewed in a ‘billy’ can.
It is the second most popular beverage in the world after water.
It douses thirst, cures and prolongs. It is drunk for pleasure and for wellbeing. Wherever and however it is taken, tea brings comfort, concord, courtesy, conviviality and warmth. From its legendary beginnings in China to its present-day popularity, tea has had a long and vivid history.
Its story is steeped in ritual and religion, adventure and enterprise, smuggling and revolution, literature and social change.
The Mandarin word for tea is cha, which became ch’a (pronounced tcha) in Cantonese. Variations passed into other languages, becoming ‘chai’ in India, Afghanistan, Persia, Russia and Turkish and ‘shai’ in Arabic. ‘Cha’ or ‘char’ was the form in which it first appeared in English in the late 16th century and the word still survives colloquially in the phrase ‘a cup of char’.
At first primarily valued for its health benefits, drinking tea was later discovered by Buddhists to be an effective way of keeping awake during long hours of meditation. The Japanese call tea ‘O Cha’, meaning honourable tea, and have evolved the complicated ritual of the tea ceremony.
In times of trouble and strife or after a laborious day, the desire for a nice cup of tea and a sit down can be overwhelmingly strong. One reason that tea makes us feel good is because it contains caffeine, perking us up and refreshing us while at the same time its healthful polyphenols calm and soothe us.
But this particular book, as the title declares is ‘Dark History’.
Why dark, one should guess!!
It is dark due to the reason that while there is never-ending bliss in taking tea, the painted veil of refinement and civilisation that tea wears hides a much darker history.
It is dark since, despite the fact that today nothing seems more delightful and serene than drinking tea and tea enjoyment is seen as one of life’s most basic and natural pleasures, the rise of tea consumption in Europe and Britain is stained with tears and corruption.
Indeed, the shady underside of tea is a tale of death, drug addiction, exploitation, monopolies, wars and ethnic displacement. While tea became the Western world’s favourite beverage it instigated revolution and two wars.
Death by tea was a very real possibility and you’d be lucky if your tea was only adulterated with cherry leaves, acting as a rather unwanted, strong laxative. As fears escalated about tea being the trigger for hysteria and insomnia, the real issue was it carrying the risk of being toxic through widespread adulteration.
Unscrupulous businessmen in the Chinese city of Guangzhou (Canton) and England resorted to all kinds of unseemly practices to pad out consignments of green tea. In 1766 an earlier Act of Parliament levying a fine on adulterators was made more stringent by the threat of imprisonment.
However, with so much profit to be made from adulteration, the threat of incarceration was not an effective deterrent. Dishonest dealers continued to swindle tea-lovers by adding iron filings and the leaves of other plants, such as hawthorn, and even dying leaves with verdigris, Prussian blue, Dutch pink, ferrous sulphate, copper carbonate and sheep’s dung.
The author has divided this book into ten chapters:
Chapter 1: The Origins of Tea – The opening chapter speaks of the fact that the origin of tea is shrouded in myths and stories, so much so that it is hard to institute its accurate history from the rich tapestry of mythology. From Chinese emperors to Portuguese princesses, the history of tea is as rich and varied as its tasting notes.
Chapter 2: Growth in Europe & Britain - Tea is often considered a great British tradition and as such very few stop to consider it strange how an Oriental infusion has conquered the world, impacting the relatively recent history of the West. This chapter speaks of the manner in which the tea leaf has enchanted Europe and Britain unlike any other. This chapter narrates the process, how ‘leaf gold’ would come to dominate household spending and occupy a place in the homes and workplaces of the wealthy and poor in Europe and Britain alike.
Chapter 3: Tea Demand: Opium, Slums and Prostitutes – This chapter shows how the demand for tea rose rapidly from the mid-17th century. The amount drunk per person was increasing and Britain was destined to become enslaved to the exotic beverage. The demand was fulfilled by the East India Company.
It is with this chapter that the ‘Dark’ aspects truly emerge.
Opium was a growing concern in England. The topic of addiction raged and the scales of public opinion tipped between seeing the addicted as morally bankrupt criminals or victims of circumstance. Public opinion about the opium epidemic was strongly influenced by professional, social, political and international interests.
Therein came the Opium Wars.
However, despite all the issues surrounding opium and the direct link between the import of tea and opium, the popularity of tea never waned. Trade with China had brought widespread familiarity with tea as well as other foreign goods, so much so that tea was now an everyday commodity and had become a necessity in British life.
The Opium Wars did not halt British trade with China. In fact, after the Treaty of Nanking, which marked the end of the First Opium War, trade increased.
Chapter 4: Tea Addiction, Smuggling, Swindle and Taxation – This chapter takes the raders furtherdown the rabbit hole of darkness.
Britain had developed a taste for tea and as the middle classes slurped, sipped and savoured the brew, the taxes and trade monopoly kept the prices high. 18th century Britain was coloured by the phenomenal increase in the number and weightiness of taxes: from the Revolution to the defeat of Napoleon, tax revenues leapt from around £2 million to nearly £80 million.
Despite these huge tax hikes the government did not have a limitless ability to collect taxes, for in addition to the popular public opposition to taxes on everyday commodities such as tobacco, wine, ale and cider, the government’s ability to levy tax was also hampered by fraud and smuggling, thus limiting their ability to enforce the payment of duties levied, and the amount of tax that a particular commodity could yield.
Chapter 5: Tea and Seduction – This interesting chapter shows that from the late 18th century onwards, tea and seduction became synonymous. Many popular plays of the time cited the social importance of taking tea. Increasingly, such plays hinted at the possibility of sexual tension and playfulness. While the eighteenth-century leisure gardens offered tea in curtained cubicles, the rise of taking tea as a sociable activity at home was an opportunity for middle-class sexual play.
Chapter 6: The Kill or Cure Tea Debate – This chapter establishes that as tea’s popularity swelled amongst all ranks of society, so too did the controversy about the apparent evils of excessive tea drinking. In a society awash with gloomy gin houses, where everything from infanticide to prostitution was attributed to alcoholism, another drug existed in liquid form that nurtured an addiction that was considered every bit as dangerous. Tea was fast replacing gin as the blight on moral and physical well-being according to the medical community. Bootleggers sold their gut-rot gin under fancy names such as ‘Cuckold’s Comfort’, ‘Ladies’ Delight’ and ‘Knock Me Down’ and gin gnawed at London’s underbelly, sending it into a morbid state of social and moral decay. It was aptly nicknamed ‘Mothers’ Ruin’, as many women resorted to drinking cheap ‘bathtub gin’ in order to drown their sorrows. As a result, children were neglected and sometimes daughters were sold into prostitution.
Chapter 7: The British Tradition of Tea - The history of tea and its introduction to Britain spelled a sequence of social transformations. The British steadily accepted tea consumption as a sign of enhancement and ultimately all social classes enjoyed the drink, but as tea flourished and an image of tea as genteel and polite emerged, the concept of a ‘proper cup of tea’ touted by the advertisers hid a far from unblemished record.
Chapter 8: The Tainted Tea of Lost Assam – This chapter focusses exclusively on Assam. Within a decade of the first London sale of Assam tea in 1839, the riverboats on Assam’s Brahmaputra River were full of young, ambitious British men looking to make their fortune. Filled with excitement over building lives as tea planters and dealers, they brought their ‘essentials’ from home, which included golf clubs and pedigree dogs.
The Assamese did not readily take to the roles offered in the tea gardens and colonial officials soon condemned the local peasants as the epitome of the ‘lazy native’.
Indeed, the reluctance of the Assamese to engage in the work and accept the conditions was conveniently blamed on ‘opium mania’, which was singled out as the prime reason for the decline of Assamese society.
Chapter 9: Tea in British Culture: Changing Customs and Rituals – This chapter focusses on Britain’s obsession with tea. It speaks of how British lives are awash with tea and the drink is surrounded by controversies, such as whether milk should be added first or last, which always fuels furious debates. How to make tea is often the subject of heated arguments, with everyone having their own particular set of golden rules.
Brewing one’s perfect cuppa at home is all well and good, but tea is not just the drink of break times and breakfast: it has an important social role to play. This chapter traces the process as to how by the turn of the 19th century, tea had become an important part of daily life and its associated rituals and functions were distinctly British.
Chapter 10: Witchcraft, Scrying and Sorcery – The concluding chapter is by far th most enjoyable of the entire book. The author says that, ‘It isn’t surprising to see tea feature in so many scandals and superstitions, given its central and long-standing function in British social life.
There is no doubt that tea is magical stuff, capable of reviving weary souls and refreshing stagnant conversations.’ However, aside from providing the key to a refreshing break, tea is actually believed to have qualities deeply rooted in magic lore. Wise women, alchemists and witches in folktales have all searched for the perfect brew to heal, to help and to achieve their every will.
Tea magic is in fact an ancient and very powerful art that employs belief and divination. This chapter shows, how cunning women, kitchen witches and herbalists alike have all found wisdom in the use of herbs; from prosperity spells to those used to banish nightmares, tea leaves have appeared in a variety of concoctions.
I found this book both pleasurable and didactic for two key reasons: a) the language was coherent and chapters reserved and b) the usage of a large number of anecdotes and cross-references from a variety of texts.
If you are a lover of Tea, this is a must-read for you.
May 22, 2020
Whilst it takes a global view, A Dark History of Tea should really be called A Dark British History Of Tea. WIih the exception on an opening chapter which runs through the Chinese history (the dark brew ages of tea), this is understandably a very anglocentric take on the history if tea. Not that it shies away from the horrors that have been committed in the name of tea, its core plank as part of the opium triangle in the Opium Wars is well identified, but the book does worry about its tone when it has to reveal that tea was the main reason we doomed an entire nation to addiction and penury. The book has this problem throughout, that tea was one of many hot beverages that fuelled the coffee houses on the seventeenth century that fermented revolt. There are swathes of the book where the focus on tea is loosened to try to take in the big picture, which is more than acceptable when you are talking about the British Empire or East India Company, but it does sometimes feel less like a history of tea, and more like an empire primer.
Despite this its a very enjoyable read, dipping into the vignettes about how tea begins to dominate British life is fascinating. And if the Empire bits feel a little passionless, this is understandable. Giving equal space in the book to the indenture system in India to the development of Nippies and romance in Lyons Tea Rooms is going to cause a little whiplash. It is around the time we hit the 20th Century when the book really gives up too much pretence of rigour and becomes collections of fun vignettes, the Young Poisoners Handbook digression is great if off point. There are possibly better books to be written about the development of tea as a national drink, the economic and political importance of tea in Empire, and the culinary development of it as a beverage (and not mentioning Earl Grey, or British herbal teas like Nettle seems to be a strange omission), but this has got mostly everything in one place to at least tie these threads together.
[Netgalley ARC]
Despite this its a very enjoyable read, dipping into the vignettes about how tea begins to dominate British life is fascinating. And if the Empire bits feel a little passionless, this is understandable. Giving equal space in the book to the indenture system in India to the development of Nippies and romance in Lyons Tea Rooms is going to cause a little whiplash. It is around the time we hit the 20th Century when the book really gives up too much pretence of rigour and becomes collections of fun vignettes, the Young Poisoners Handbook digression is great if off point. There are possibly better books to be written about the development of tea as a national drink, the economic and political importance of tea in Empire, and the culinary development of it as a beverage (and not mentioning Earl Grey, or British herbal teas like Nettle seems to be a strange omission), but this has got mostly everything in one place to at least tie these threads together.
[Netgalley ARC]
May 18, 2020
Tea is my favourite thing to drink. I prefer plain and simple green tea, without milk. Naturally I highly enjoyed this informative and well written book on tea.
"Tea’s proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence." [ Samuel Johnson]
See, tea is an innocent, proper and prim drink. Well you thought so. Who knew tea had a strong connection to opium ? Do you know about imitation black tea? "Imitation black tea often contained hawthorn, ash and sloe leaves combined with chamber lye (the contents of the chamber pot) or animal dung and bran. Once ground down it was said that such a mixture strongly resembled the popular Bohea tea."
There are some sensational and gruesome stories of murder, the cause? Tea, obviously. People killed because of their tea business, people killed people by poisoning their tea, people wanted profit so they adulterated tea thus rendering it poisonous. The public fear about adulterated tea was so great that tea dealers were treated "‘almost as a secret assassin, ready to enter every man’s house to poison him and his family. It almost converted the English into a nation of botanists."
The negative impact of tea was so rampant that Wesley [an Anglican minister] even offered advice on how to deal with the awkward social situation of declining the offer of taking tea.
This book discusses in great length about the popularity,negativity,positivity,colonialism and other paraphernalia that came with tea as a profitable product [it even contains a chapter on how to read tea leaves ].
Of course, there is slog which is kind of unavoidable in non-fiction. There must be some boring details and datas. On the other hand the book is full of pictures!
* ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review .
"Tea’s proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence." [ Samuel Johnson]
See, tea is an innocent, proper and prim drink. Well you thought so. Who knew tea had a strong connection to opium ? Do you know about imitation black tea? "Imitation black tea often contained hawthorn, ash and sloe leaves combined with chamber lye (the contents of the chamber pot) or animal dung and bran. Once ground down it was said that such a mixture strongly resembled the popular Bohea tea."
There are some sensational and gruesome stories of murder, the cause? Tea, obviously. People killed because of their tea business, people killed people by poisoning their tea, people wanted profit so they adulterated tea thus rendering it poisonous. The public fear about adulterated tea was so great that tea dealers were treated "‘almost as a secret assassin, ready to enter every man’s house to poison him and his family. It almost converted the English into a nation of botanists."
The negative impact of tea was so rampant that Wesley [an Anglican minister] even offered advice on how to deal with the awkward social situation of declining the offer of taking tea.
This book discusses in great length about the popularity,negativity,positivity,colonialism and other paraphernalia that came with tea as a profitable product [it even contains a chapter on how to read tea leaves ].
Of course, there is slog which is kind of unavoidable in non-fiction. There must be some boring details and datas. On the other hand the book is full of pictures!
* ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review .
April 6, 2022
Fascinating book. Covers the history, politics, cultivation method, culture, sorcery.. - almost all aspects concerning tea, that too in a nutshell.
A must read !!
A must read !!
June 1, 2020
trigger warning
This book tells the history of tea made out of the tea-plant. The mythological origins in China, how it arrived in Europe, became famous. How wars were fought in order to finance the import.
Let me start with the title of this book. It should be "A Dark History of Tea in Britain", because this book is anglocentric. I thought I had a general history of tea here, but no. It goes so far, that the author speaks of "we" when talking about british people.
While it starts off with the history of tea in China and Japan, and we get some small allusions to other European countries, once you reach the Opium wars, the book doesn't even pretend anymore that there are countries aside from the empire. The way this was handled felt jarring. It would have been so easy to just say in the introduction that it's a huge field so the author is concentrating on one area, and it would have been fine.
Point two. The footnotes. There are exactly 10.
Need I say more or should I elaborate?
It's just... where did you get your facts? Where, exactly, could I look something up if I want to go in deeper on that aspect? A small list of literature at the back is not enough.
Even if you were to say we don't do footnotes, how come there are exactly 10? It felt as if the author remembered in one chapter that there are ways to do this, and then forgot again.
I looked up on the Netgalley profile if I was given an unfinished proof, but I can't find anything on that.
Next problem: The writing. There is this weird thing going on where on one hand, the author beats around the bush and refrains from clearly naming things. The feces used to contaminate tea are "contents of a champer pot", for example. On the other hand, if there is the opportunity to use outdated and offensive language to describe people, it is done. It's 2020 everyone, you should know better than to use "gypsy" in earnest.
At the end, every pretense of writing some serious nonfiction is thrown over board with listing recipes for magic rituals without naming the source - yeah, common problem in this book - or any details or having any kind or consistent formatting.
Even if you'd say I have an unfinished proof, the writing style is more than just iffy. You'd have to say unedited. I really don't know what to make of this.
I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
This book tells the history of tea made out of the tea-plant. The mythological origins in China, how it arrived in Europe, became famous. How wars were fought in order to finance the import.
Let me start with the title of this book. It should be "A Dark History of Tea in Britain", because this book is anglocentric. I thought I had a general history of tea here, but no. It goes so far, that the author speaks of "we" when talking about british people.
While it starts off with the history of tea in China and Japan, and we get some small allusions to other European countries, once you reach the Opium wars, the book doesn't even pretend anymore that there are countries aside from the empire. The way this was handled felt jarring. It would have been so easy to just say in the introduction that it's a huge field so the author is concentrating on one area, and it would have been fine.
Point two. The footnotes. There are exactly 10.
Need I say more or should I elaborate?
It's just... where did you get your facts? Where, exactly, could I look something up if I want to go in deeper on that aspect? A small list of literature at the back is not enough.
Even if you were to say we don't do footnotes, how come there are exactly 10? It felt as if the author remembered in one chapter that there are ways to do this, and then forgot again.
I looked up on the Netgalley profile if I was given an unfinished proof, but I can't find anything on that.
Next problem: The writing. There is this weird thing going on where on one hand, the author beats around the bush and refrains from clearly naming things. The feces used to contaminate tea are "contents of a champer pot", for example. On the other hand, if there is the opportunity to use outdated and offensive language to describe people, it is done. It's 2020 everyone, you should know better than to use "gypsy" in earnest.
At the end, every pretense of writing some serious nonfiction is thrown over board with listing recipes for magic rituals without naming the source - yeah, common problem in this book - or any details or having any kind or consistent formatting.
Even if you'd say I have an unfinished proof, the writing style is more than just iffy. You'd have to say unedited. I really don't know what to make of this.
I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.
May 12, 2020
*This book was received as an advanced reviewer's copy from NetGalley.
I'm always fascinated by food history, particularly the history of specific ingredients or food items. So a book all about tea seemed right up my alley. I did learn a lot of new things about tea, but I also found the book to be slightly repetitive and narrow in the scope of its environment.
A Dark History of Tea covers the time period of tea being brought to Britain and how it shaped up to be the most popular drink there. But with a catch, adulteration, illicit trade, and other nefarious things proved that tea wasn't just an innocent drink, and that people suffered for the want of it.
All in all, this is a good history of how tea came to Britain and the problems with the trade. Whether it was the opium wars or unscrupulous people mixing in all kind of ingredients with their tea, the history was covered. That being said, this is primarily about Britain's dark history with tea, and by conjunction a bit of the issues in China/India. So it's only a narrow scope of what I expected the book to be, I would have appreciated more information on tea and its vices in other places around the world as well. I also found it a bit repetitive (you will become very, very aware that tea was frequently mixed with some kind of feces, to help stretch the contents for selling, among other items). I almost felt like each new chapter was starting the book over a bit with the reiteration of some of the facts that had been covered in previous chapters.
I did appreciate that there were illustrations and inserts of correspondence from history; it helped gain new appreciation for how tea was viewed and offered some insights into the times. Overall, this was an interesting book, and a quick read on tea. For those looking for a brief look into this popular drink, this might just be your cup of tea (and yes, I'm sure I will not be the only one to make that pun)! A solid 3.5 stars from me.
Review by M. Reynard 2020
I'm always fascinated by food history, particularly the history of specific ingredients or food items. So a book all about tea seemed right up my alley. I did learn a lot of new things about tea, but I also found the book to be slightly repetitive and narrow in the scope of its environment.
A Dark History of Tea covers the time period of tea being brought to Britain and how it shaped up to be the most popular drink there. But with a catch, adulteration, illicit trade, and other nefarious things proved that tea wasn't just an innocent drink, and that people suffered for the want of it.
All in all, this is a good history of how tea came to Britain and the problems with the trade. Whether it was the opium wars or unscrupulous people mixing in all kind of ingredients with their tea, the history was covered. That being said, this is primarily about Britain's dark history with tea, and by conjunction a bit of the issues in China/India. So it's only a narrow scope of what I expected the book to be, I would have appreciated more information on tea and its vices in other places around the world as well. I also found it a bit repetitive (you will become very, very aware that tea was frequently mixed with some kind of feces, to help stretch the contents for selling, among other items). I almost felt like each new chapter was starting the book over a bit with the reiteration of some of the facts that had been covered in previous chapters.
I did appreciate that there were illustrations and inserts of correspondence from history; it helped gain new appreciation for how tea was viewed and offered some insights into the times. Overall, this was an interesting book, and a quick read on tea. For those looking for a brief look into this popular drink, this might just be your cup of tea (and yes, I'm sure I will not be the only one to make that pun)! A solid 3.5 stars from me.
Review by M. Reynard 2020
June 23, 2020
A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley and Pen & Sword in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
Content warnings: Racism, drug addiction, sexual assault, slavery, murder.
My rating: 4 books out of 5
Highlights:
From tree to mug the story of tea is anything but boring.
I find it fascinating how one thing can have such a profound effect on the politics and history of a nation.
Life might be hard but at least there’s not dung in our tea any more.
People used to plan historical uprisings in coffee houses so we haven’t changed that much to be honest.
If only people had protested racism and sexism with the same vehemence they protested the King trying to shut said coffee houses. Again, haven't changed that much.
There’s a list of tea spells at the back!
Tea enjoyment is seen as one of life’s most basic and natural pleasures, but the rise of tea consumption in Europe and Britain is stained with tears and corruption.
A cup of tea. For me, there’s little more peaceful and comforting than a cuppa and a book. I’m drinking tea as I write this, I drank an awful lot of it while I read this book. Despite my liking for a cup of coffee on a Monday morning, or a night time hot chocolate, it’s tea I fall back on in times of stress or sadness.
And there’s been rather a lot of that going around lately, hasn’t there?
While there’s little more quintessentially British than a cup of tea and a chat, the plant isn’t native to our little island. It’s not even native to our continent. A drink so old its discovery predates any written history beyond myth and legend, tea is fundamentally Chinese in origin. Of course, once European travellers discovered it, things changed. Two wars and a revolution later, here I am drinking my cuppa from a mug with a fairytale landscape on it. And thank goodness it doesn’t contain floor sweepings, poison or animal waste.
At least I really hope it doesn’t, it’s my favourite type. I’d hate to have to change.
This book was absolutely fascinating, both for the history of tea itself and for the illuminating glimpse into the history of the country I call home. I took an AS level in history - I still to this day cannot escape Gladstone and Disraeli (no really I bought hot chocolate and the receipt had a Gladstone quote at the bottom) - and the way colonialism affected our modern views of literature was a topic I covered at university (spoiler alert: if it wasn’t by a white dude it rarely made it big), so while I’m hardly an expert I did recognise a few names and events mentioned. However, a lot of this stuff was entirely new to me. And pretty much all of it was horrifying.
History is in many ways cyclical, but it was chilling to see the sort of rhetoric spread about Chinese immigrants over a hundred years ago, especially when you hold it up to the sort spread about immigrants in general nowadays. It’s almost identical. There has always been political power in getting voters to unite in hating the same people.
So while I knew the history of the humble tea leaf wouldn’t be idyllic, this was a JOURNEY of war, racism, drug addiction, shady business dealings, murder and witchcraft.
Yup, it really does have everything.
The main thing I had against this book going through was that the narrative of it wasn’t entirely linear. It followed a mostly chronological setup in terms of time passing, but had a tendency to bounce about a bit when further discussing certain topics - like the opium trade or the nasty state of many a Victorian larder - and as someone for whom dates do not come naturally, I found myself getting a little confused from time to time. There was a lot of ‘wait didn’t we already cover that bit? Isn’t it the 1800s now? Okay no...okay back to the 1800s’ but let’s all remember there’s a high chance that this is for two reasons:
I am an idiot
I read this in lockdown and my brain was slowly turning to mush. I couldn’t even remember the current date. Still can’t tbh, it’s just somewhere between January and inevitable death.
So if you’re a historically minded person you may not find that this is an issue. Just be aware going in that there are callbacks to earlier dates throughout.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. Despite the slight confusion from the non-linear dates I took away a great deal from the reading experience that I won’t be forgetting in a hurry. Even something as simple as a cup of tea with breakfast has a dark and storied history that might just change the way you look at it.
Content warnings: Racism, drug addiction, sexual assault, slavery, murder.
My rating: 4 books out of 5
Highlights:
From tree to mug the story of tea is anything but boring.
I find it fascinating how one thing can have such a profound effect on the politics and history of a nation.
Life might be hard but at least there’s not dung in our tea any more.
People used to plan historical uprisings in coffee houses so we haven’t changed that much to be honest.
If only people had protested racism and sexism with the same vehemence they protested the King trying to shut said coffee houses. Again, haven't changed that much.
There’s a list of tea spells at the back!
Tea enjoyment is seen as one of life’s most basic and natural pleasures, but the rise of tea consumption in Europe and Britain is stained with tears and corruption.
A cup of tea. For me, there’s little more peaceful and comforting than a cuppa and a book. I’m drinking tea as I write this, I drank an awful lot of it while I read this book. Despite my liking for a cup of coffee on a Monday morning, or a night time hot chocolate, it’s tea I fall back on in times of stress or sadness.
And there’s been rather a lot of that going around lately, hasn’t there?
While there’s little more quintessentially British than a cup of tea and a chat, the plant isn’t native to our little island. It’s not even native to our continent. A drink so old its discovery predates any written history beyond myth and legend, tea is fundamentally Chinese in origin. Of course, once European travellers discovered it, things changed. Two wars and a revolution later, here I am drinking my cuppa from a mug with a fairytale landscape on it. And thank goodness it doesn’t contain floor sweepings, poison or animal waste.
At least I really hope it doesn’t, it’s my favourite type. I’d hate to have to change.
This book was absolutely fascinating, both for the history of tea itself and for the illuminating glimpse into the history of the country I call home. I took an AS level in history - I still to this day cannot escape Gladstone and Disraeli (no really I bought hot chocolate and the receipt had a Gladstone quote at the bottom) - and the way colonialism affected our modern views of literature was a topic I covered at university (spoiler alert: if it wasn’t by a white dude it rarely made it big), so while I’m hardly an expert I did recognise a few names and events mentioned. However, a lot of this stuff was entirely new to me. And pretty much all of it was horrifying.
History is in many ways cyclical, but it was chilling to see the sort of rhetoric spread about Chinese immigrants over a hundred years ago, especially when you hold it up to the sort spread about immigrants in general nowadays. It’s almost identical. There has always been political power in getting voters to unite in hating the same people.
So while I knew the history of the humble tea leaf wouldn’t be idyllic, this was a JOURNEY of war, racism, drug addiction, shady business dealings, murder and witchcraft.
Yup, it really does have everything.
The main thing I had against this book going through was that the narrative of it wasn’t entirely linear. It followed a mostly chronological setup in terms of time passing, but had a tendency to bounce about a bit when further discussing certain topics - like the opium trade or the nasty state of many a Victorian larder - and as someone for whom dates do not come naturally, I found myself getting a little confused from time to time. There was a lot of ‘wait didn’t we already cover that bit? Isn’t it the 1800s now? Okay no...okay back to the 1800s’ but let’s all remember there’s a high chance that this is for two reasons:
I am an idiot
I read this in lockdown and my brain was slowly turning to mush. I couldn’t even remember the current date. Still can’t tbh, it’s just somewhere between January and inevitable death.
So if you’re a historically minded person you may not find that this is an issue. Just be aware going in that there are callbacks to earlier dates throughout.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. Despite the slight confusion from the non-linear dates I took away a great deal from the reading experience that I won’t be forgetting in a hurry. Even something as simple as a cup of tea with breakfast has a dark and storied history that might just change the way you look at it.
May 4, 2020
A Dark History of Tea is an Anglophile's dream...a study of the world's most popular drink focusing mainly on the down and dirty details of how tea became Britain's "national beverage." The bulk of the book is concerned with the rise of tea in China and its eventual import into England, highlighting the unfair trade deals, impoverished workers, and illicit smuggling that that made it possible. Charrington-Hollins does a fine job juxtaposing these unsavory details with tea's image as a refined drink in England, showing that even the things thought of as the most upscale can have a dark underbelly. The Opium Wars between China and England take center stage in the riveting middle section of the book, where Charrington-Hollins describes the appalling prevalence of Opium in 19th century England during a time when tea was considered a far too expensive and therefore niche product. The usage of opium to treat everyone from infants to the elderly is especially eye-opening to read about during our modern times when many countries struggle with opioid epidemics.
The main issue I had while finishing up this book was that I found 85% of it to be a great and interesting history lesson, but the final 15% of the book is comprised of a section on the more "occult" uses of tea, such as in witchcraft, "spells", and the readings of tea leaves. While this does fit into the "dark history" aspect of the title, I found it to be a bit of a peculiar tonal shift to end the book on, which prevents me from rating it a full five stars. However, I still would recommend this highly to anyone who enjoys a cuppa and may want to learn more about the lesser known history of the drink.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Pen & Sword History**
The main issue I had while finishing up this book was that I found 85% of it to be a great and interesting history lesson, but the final 15% of the book is comprised of a section on the more "occult" uses of tea, such as in witchcraft, "spells", and the readings of tea leaves. While this does fit into the "dark history" aspect of the title, I found it to be a bit of a peculiar tonal shift to end the book on, which prevents me from rating it a full five stars. However, I still would recommend this highly to anyone who enjoys a cuppa and may want to learn more about the lesser known history of the drink.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Pen & Sword History**
May 28, 2020
This was a good read about historical events and I learnt lots of facts that I did to know, this made it a very interesting read. It was not an easy book to read as the date order jumped in and out of sequence many times which I did not really like and could not see any reason for it either, I found it off putting as opposed to adding an impact.
I am not sure that the title fits the book that well as I could to think of it as the dark side, more like the shady side. In places this was rather dry but in other places it was fascinating, the photo’s were lovely additions.
Rather than the story of tea I felt that it was very close to being the story of the East India Tea Company.
Having said all the above I do have to add that I had not previously known of the U.K. involvement in the Opium Trade and this book certainly gave an excellent view of that. I was surprised about the fact that coffee was the preferred drink of the British prior to Tea as I had always assumed the reverse was true. The author gives a lovely view of the life of the smugglers, the way tea had been taxed and the worst of all, the highly descriptive ways that tea was adulterated was frightening to say the least.
I am not sure that the title fits the book that well as I could to think of it as the dark side, more like the shady side. In places this was rather dry but in other places it was fascinating, the photo’s were lovely additions.
Rather than the story of tea I felt that it was very close to being the story of the East India Tea Company.
Having said all the above I do have to add that I had not previously known of the U.K. involvement in the Opium Trade and this book certainly gave an excellent view of that. I was surprised about the fact that coffee was the preferred drink of the British prior to Tea as I had always assumed the reverse was true. The author gives a lovely view of the life of the smugglers, the way tea had been taxed and the worst of all, the highly descriptive ways that tea was adulterated was frightening to say the least.
August 16, 2022
Teen pimeä historia. Kirjan nimen olisi ennemmin pitänyt olla "Oopiumia, viinaa ja vähän teetä Britanniassa", sen verran keskityttiin alkoholin ja oopiumin käytön kuvaamiseen. Vähemmälläkin toistolla olisin oppinut, että tee oli ennen vain yläluokan juoma hintansa takia ja että Intian Assamissa brittiläiset teenviljelijät pahoinpitelivät ja kohtelivat työntekijöitään huonosti. Tulevatko nämä asiat jollekin yllätyksenä? Kokonaisuus oli vaappuva, kirjoitusvirheitä riitti ja kuvituksena oli käytetty samaa kuvaa oopiumhuoneesta kahdesti. Lopussa on ohjeet teelehdistä ennustamiseen ja aakkoslista siitä, mitä tietyt tulkinnat tarkoittavat. Joo.
May 11, 2020
Fascinating, broad look at the history of tea
I enjoyed this book. Seren Charrington-Hollins put together a great story on the history of tea. The book is written in a conversational tone and takes some fascinating detours, such as looking at the relevant opium trade. The scope of the book is quite broad and looks at subjects like how tea is prepared, the development of tea bags, and less savory topics such as adulteration. Altogether a fascinating book that should appeal even to non-tea drinkers (such as myself).
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
I enjoyed this book. Seren Charrington-Hollins put together a great story on the history of tea. The book is written in a conversational tone and takes some fascinating detours, such as looking at the relevant opium trade. The scope of the book is quite broad and looks at subjects like how tea is prepared, the development of tea bags, and less savory topics such as adulteration. Altogether a fascinating book that should appeal even to non-tea drinkers (such as myself).
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
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December 22, 2020Promises to dishy and revealing, but I don't feel like the book lives up to it. At least not in the first couple of chapters, and if I'm not hooked by now, I doubt I will be later. Some bits were interesting, like how tea became integrated with political and economic power, but for the most part I just felt like I was getting an info dump of background information.
November 10, 2023
An enjoyable book to read over a few cups of tea.
The author never goes too in-depth, on any one thing, but there is a lot of ground covered. You’ll just enough to peak your interest and seek out more knowledge elsewhere.
Any tea lover should give it a try.
I want to grow my own tea now.
The author never goes too in-depth, on any one thing, but there is a lot of ground covered. You’ll just enough to peak your interest and seek out more knowledge elsewhere.
Any tea lover should give it a try.
I want to grow my own tea now.
January 15, 2021
"Whilst there is infinite pleasure in taking tea, the painted veil of gentility and civilisation that tea wears hides a much darker history."
- From introduction
Food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins has written an interesting and charming book, told in conversational and light tone, regardless of gruesome content.
How tea arrived to Britain and became a integral part of British culture, is a story that contains awfully lot of ugly side of human nature. Wars, addiction, horrible working conditions, adulteration of tea and unfair trade. There are also customs of taking tea, seduction and drinking tea in illicit houses.
Interesting illustrations.
- From introduction
Food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins has written an interesting and charming book, told in conversational and light tone, regardless of gruesome content.
How tea arrived to Britain and became a integral part of British culture, is a story that contains awfully lot of ugly side of human nature. Wars, addiction, horrible working conditions, adulteration of tea and unfair trade. There are also customs of taking tea, seduction and drinking tea in illicit houses.
Interesting illustrations.
May 18, 2021
I literally cannot believe an actual historian wrote this book. The writing style is akin to a college freshman writing their first paper. It reads as very clumsy and unpracticed. Some of the sentences didn't even make grammatical sense. Who edited this? And there were literally historical inaccuracies that even a layperson could pick up such as calling the 1730's "Victorian" era. And the overall structure of the book and its chapters was completely incoherent. The author jumped suddenly between time periods and places between paragraphs even with no explanation of how these events were connected. I was excited when I started reading this book as it seemed so promising in terms of the topic and the chronological depth and geographic breadth, but reading this book just made me feel frustrated and annoyed.
July 11, 2020
Thanks to Rosie Crofts at Pen & Sword for sending me a copy of this book for review.
I like tea. Green tea, black tea, herbal teas, you name it, I'll drink it. I've been to Twinnings shop in London and had a tea tasting session. I have a small collection of loose leaf teas. I can't decide if Rington's or Betty's of Harrogate do the best household tea bags. I once gave myself a migraine from drinking way too much builders tea.
I like tea.
I do not like the history of tea. Britain, or more precisely the East India Company of London, had a hugely damaging effect on the world and helped build an empire on slavery, tea, sugar and opium. I thought this book would be about the machinations of the tea trade in the 16th to 19th centuries and about food adulteration in the domestic tea market. I assumed it would be Anglocentric because most Pen & Sword books are and it is clearly aimed at the British market - it has a BBC history documentary series feel to it - , so I wasn't overly disappointed that there was not much about the other European empires built partly on the tea trade, or the development of tea growing in places other than China and Assam. I would have liked to learn about that, and more details about life on the tea plantations in both those places.
The book was interesting but felt like a series of essays written on different tea-related topics and then joined together. There was a lot of repetition and chronology was all over the place. One sentence is about Victorian horror at lower class tea drinking and the next mentions a Georgian criminal case. There was also the random chapter on tea magic at the end. I don't understand the point of that and found the use of 'gypsy' to refer to Roma jarring and the constant use of 'coolies', even when in quotation marks unnecessary.
On the other hand, I found it very easy to read and gained some knowledge from it. The author is very interested in her subject at times and the passion shines through in the writing. It's not a bad book, it just missed the mark slightly for me. If you're after a basic text on the history f tea drinking in Britain, it's a good one to try.
I like tea. Green tea, black tea, herbal teas, you name it, I'll drink it. I've been to Twinnings shop in London and had a tea tasting session. I have a small collection of loose leaf teas. I can't decide if Rington's or Betty's of Harrogate do the best household tea bags. I once gave myself a migraine from drinking way too much builders tea.
I like tea.
I do not like the history of tea. Britain, or more precisely the East India Company of London, had a hugely damaging effect on the world and helped build an empire on slavery, tea, sugar and opium. I thought this book would be about the machinations of the tea trade in the 16th to 19th centuries and about food adulteration in the domestic tea market. I assumed it would be Anglocentric because most Pen & Sword books are and it is clearly aimed at the British market - it has a BBC history documentary series feel to it - , so I wasn't overly disappointed that there was not much about the other European empires built partly on the tea trade, or the development of tea growing in places other than China and Assam. I would have liked to learn about that, and more details about life on the tea plantations in both those places.
The book was interesting but felt like a series of essays written on different tea-related topics and then joined together. There was a lot of repetition and chronology was all over the place. One sentence is about Victorian horror at lower class tea drinking and the next mentions a Georgian criminal case. There was also the random chapter on tea magic at the end. I don't understand the point of that and found the use of 'gypsy' to refer to Roma jarring and the constant use of 'coolies', even when in quotation marks unnecessary.
On the other hand, I found it very easy to read and gained some knowledge from it. The author is very interested in her subject at times and the passion shines through in the writing. It's not a bad book, it just missed the mark slightly for me. If you're after a basic text on the history f tea drinking in Britain, it's a good one to try.
September 7, 2020
The Dark History of Tea by Seren Charrington-Hollins
Genre: History, Non-Fiction
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Publish Date: 30 May 2020
Star Rating 5 Stars out of Five
Reading this book has had me in the same mind frame as when I was watching Netflix’s Tiger King. Which is a big compliment trust me because with Tiger King, I went into it as naive and thinking I knew what I was getting, but then the series took mad turns, with drama, conspiracy, and corruption that led to countless meme’s and a world obsessed for that month it aired. The Dark History of Tea is similar, it took me down a dark rabbit hole with each chapter bringing in new element of drama. Aren’t tigers supposed to be cute and tea supposed to be a comforting drink?
The history of tea is dark, filled with opium, profit hungry governments, racism, addiction, sex: assault and seduction and adulteration. Charrinton-Hollins is a great story teller, her passion for the topic certainly comes across which is enhanced by her profession as a food historian. The book is filled with anecdotes which are enjoyable and I particular enjoy her final chapter that went into the supernatural traditions of tea and gives a guide into how to read my own tea leaves. If I must give a criticism for the book it would be that some anecdotes may offend some audiences, (so if you don’t enjoy dark histories this is not for you!) and that there are some instances that the author unnecessarily repeats herself, but this doesn’t take away from the finished product.
If you like tea and the underbelly of histories I highly recommend this book. I really enjoyed it and got a lot more in turn of scandals and drama that I would have expected glazing over at my favourite cup of tea.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Pen and Sword History, for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Genre: History, Non-Fiction
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Publish Date: 30 May 2020
Star Rating 5 Stars out of Five
Reading this book has had me in the same mind frame as when I was watching Netflix’s Tiger King. Which is a big compliment trust me because with Tiger King, I went into it as naive and thinking I knew what I was getting, but then the series took mad turns, with drama, conspiracy, and corruption that led to countless meme’s and a world obsessed for that month it aired. The Dark History of Tea is similar, it took me down a dark rabbit hole with each chapter bringing in new element of drama. Aren’t tigers supposed to be cute and tea supposed to be a comforting drink?
The history of tea is dark, filled with opium, profit hungry governments, racism, addiction, sex: assault and seduction and adulteration. Charrinton-Hollins is a great story teller, her passion for the topic certainly comes across which is enhanced by her profession as a food historian. The book is filled with anecdotes which are enjoyable and I particular enjoy her final chapter that went into the supernatural traditions of tea and gives a guide into how to read my own tea leaves. If I must give a criticism for the book it would be that some anecdotes may offend some audiences, (so if you don’t enjoy dark histories this is not for you!) and that there are some instances that the author unnecessarily repeats herself, but this doesn’t take away from the finished product.
If you like tea and the underbelly of histories I highly recommend this book. I really enjoyed it and got a lot more in turn of scandals and drama that I would have expected glazing over at my favourite cup of tea.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Pen and Sword History, for an E-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
May 6, 2020
“From now on, I don't care if my tea leaves spell 'Die, Ron, Die,' I'm chucking them in the bin where they belong.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Tea, a most common item in households. It is so difficult to imagine such a turbulent history and mania which is associated with this rejuvenating herb. Originating from China, tea was part of rituals and customs, elaborate ceremonies and was a thing of royal household, courts and uber rich. The path it took to become a part of everyday routine of common man is well documented in the book.
Unending and heavy demand for tea has led to wars, political upheavals, smuggling and several unspeakable crimes in a direct or indirect manner. The thirst for tea resulted in intoxication of an entire nation with opium. When the taxes were high on import of tea, it led to adulteration, smuggling and establishment of a parallel organised setup for bringing in tea illegally. British were motivated to cultivate a new market and production hub for tea and marketed it as pure as compared to adulterated produce of China.
However, such rapid onset of the market resulted in happy merchants and consumers on one side and terrible lives of tea pickers on the other side. High demand for tea saw rise of feudal lords who not only controlled but owned lives of such workers.
This book is a great account of a dark history associated with tea as the name suggests. Author has done a through research which is reflected both in prose and pictures across the book. An interesting read from first to last page.
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Tea, a most common item in households. It is so difficult to imagine such a turbulent history and mania which is associated with this rejuvenating herb. Originating from China, tea was part of rituals and customs, elaborate ceremonies and was a thing of royal household, courts and uber rich. The path it took to become a part of everyday routine of common man is well documented in the book.
Unending and heavy demand for tea has led to wars, political upheavals, smuggling and several unspeakable crimes in a direct or indirect manner. The thirst for tea resulted in intoxication of an entire nation with opium. When the taxes were high on import of tea, it led to adulteration, smuggling and establishment of a parallel organised setup for bringing in tea illegally. British were motivated to cultivate a new market and production hub for tea and marketed it as pure as compared to adulterated produce of China.
However, such rapid onset of the market resulted in happy merchants and consumers on one side and terrible lives of tea pickers on the other side. High demand for tea saw rise of feudal lords who not only controlled but owned lives of such workers.
This book is a great account of a dark history associated with tea as the name suggests. Author has done a through research which is reflected both in prose and pictures across the book. An interesting read from first to last page.
June 8, 2020
What an educational and phenomenal read! Anyone who is a lover of tea knows at least some of the specifics of this favored beverage. Tea itself is not without its own history, but the leaves that make the tea also are profoundly mesmerizing. For example: the different types of tea per the leaves used the make it (black, white, green, herbal, rooibos, etc), the temperature at which to brew the specific type of tea leaves, how the region from whence it was produced can alter the flavor profile, etc.
The amount of history alone that can be told just from the simple act of brewing a cup of tea is astonishing. I knew I had to read this when I saw it, and any tea lover/history buff will feel the same. I have long been fascinated with tea and its origins after learning something about tea that has become one of my favorite tea-related "fun facts." I learned this in my early teens and have always somewhat enjoyed things of a macabre variety so, once I had learned it, I had committed it to memory and enjoyed learning more about tea and its dark past. This tea fact is that the act of dried leaves becoming saturated with the water and unfurling is known as "the agony of the leaves." This book opened my eyes to a history I knew little of but was eager to know more about. Any don't forget to drink a cup of tea while you ponder the pages within the book, it will only further immerse you in its tale.
The amount of history alone that can be told just from the simple act of brewing a cup of tea is astonishing. I knew I had to read this when I saw it, and any tea lover/history buff will feel the same. I have long been fascinated with tea and its origins after learning something about tea that has become one of my favorite tea-related "fun facts." I learned this in my early teens and have always somewhat enjoyed things of a macabre variety so, once I had learned it, I had committed it to memory and enjoyed learning more about tea and its dark past. This tea fact is that the act of dried leaves becoming saturated with the water and unfurling is known as "the agony of the leaves." This book opened my eyes to a history I knew little of but was eager to know more about. Any don't forget to drink a cup of tea while you ponder the pages within the book, it will only further immerse you in its tale.
January 8, 2021
My husband bought this for me, based on a good review. I don’t know what the reviewer read, but it wasn’t this.
There were some good facts in there, and things I didn’t know, and the later chapters were quite strong, but the early chapters...!
The author is very fond on their premise that ‘the dark history of tea’ is completely unknown. They mention people sitting down for a cuppa ‘unaware of its blood-soaked history’ quite a lot. When we get to the chapters on people murdered with tea, everyone sits down for a nice cuppa afterwards, which seems glib to say the least.
There is a lot of repetition - I think in the early chapter on coffee houses we get told that they’re nothing like Starbucks every other paragraph. Items that tea could be adulterated with are listed at least three times, again in close proximity.
Conflicting statements about the popularity of tea abound, and numbers quoted float free from actual sense (people drink a pound of tea a year. Each pound can make 200-300 cups, so on average people are drinking 2 cups of tea a day, each)
There’s a chapter on the links between tea and the opium wars which after a brief discussion of tea just talks about opium dens. A lot. In fact, so keen is the author on opium dens that artistic representations of such dens escape from that chapter and pepper the following one with no justification whatsoever.
So yes. I learnt one or two things. I enjoyed taking it apart. I mostly wanted to throw it across the room.
There were some good facts in there, and things I didn’t know, and the later chapters were quite strong, but the early chapters...!
The author is very fond on their premise that ‘the dark history of tea’ is completely unknown. They mention people sitting down for a cuppa ‘unaware of its blood-soaked history’ quite a lot. When we get to the chapters on people murdered with tea, everyone sits down for a nice cuppa afterwards, which seems glib to say the least.
There is a lot of repetition - I think in the early chapter on coffee houses we get told that they’re nothing like Starbucks every other paragraph. Items that tea could be adulterated with are listed at least three times, again in close proximity.
Conflicting statements about the popularity of tea abound, and numbers quoted float free from actual sense (people drink a pound of tea a year. Each pound can make 200-300 cups, so on average people are drinking 2 cups of tea a day, each)
There’s a chapter on the links between tea and the opium wars which after a brief discussion of tea just talks about opium dens. A lot. In fact, so keen is the author on opium dens that artistic representations of such dens escape from that chapter and pepper the following one with no justification whatsoever.
So yes. I learnt one or two things. I enjoyed taking it apart. I mostly wanted to throw it across the room.
May 11, 2020
(Note: I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
This book has quite a lot to tell about one of the most popular beverages. Even though I went in expecting quite a bit of focus upon tea’s relation to the opium trade (and there is a lot of coverage here), author Seren Charrington-Hollins reveals that tea’s past carries quite a few other dark stains. However, this is more than just a collection of everything unjust, atrocity-related, or nasty from tea’s history. Despite the book’s title, A Dark History of Tea ends up being quite a good general microhistory in general, albeit a fairly British-centric one. Now given that the author and food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins is from the UK and specializes in British food history, this focus shouldn't be of any surprise. Nevertheless, while it was indeed interesting to read about how tea grew to become such a key part of daily life in the British isles, I also admit that I would have liked to learn at least a little about how tea became a staple drink in other countries and cultures around the world and the other major present-day tea cultures that are out there. That minor criticism aside, this is very much a solid history this is a perfect book to read curled up while enjoying a warm, comforting mug of like-I-even-need-to-say-it.
This book has quite a lot to tell about one of the most popular beverages. Even though I went in expecting quite a bit of focus upon tea’s relation to the opium trade (and there is a lot of coverage here), author Seren Charrington-Hollins reveals that tea’s past carries quite a few other dark stains. However, this is more than just a collection of everything unjust, atrocity-related, or nasty from tea’s history. Despite the book’s title, A Dark History of Tea ends up being quite a good general microhistory in general, albeit a fairly British-centric one. Now given that the author and food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins is from the UK and specializes in British food history, this focus shouldn't be of any surprise. Nevertheless, while it was indeed interesting to read about how tea grew to become such a key part of daily life in the British isles, I also admit that I would have liked to learn at least a little about how tea became a staple drink in other countries and cultures around the world and the other major present-day tea cultures that are out there. That minor criticism aside, this is very much a solid history this is a perfect book to read curled up while enjoying a warm, comforting mug of like-I-even-need-to-say-it.
May 24, 2020
"A Dark History of Tea" is a history of tea from the British viewpoint. The author talked about how the British first imported tea as a medicinal herb and how the desire for more tea led to the Opium Wars and the increased use of opium in Britain, as well. The author talked about the high taxes that led to smuggling, how people added chemicals and leaves of other plants to the tea to make it cheaper and how this led to health problems for those who drank a large amount of tea, how the British tea time developed (etiquette, superstitions, teaware, dresses), and how tea was once linked with seduction. The author also talked about how tea was planted in India, what life was like for the workers on these tea plantations, the tea auctions in Britain, how tea went from being imported in blocks to loose leaf to the development and slow acceptance of tea bags. The book ended with things like the popularity of tea leaf readings and instructions on how to do it. It was an interesting overview of the history of British involvement with tea and how the harm done was hidden by propaganda or advertising.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
July 24, 2020
Make a cup of your favorite tea and sit back to enjoy this marvelous history of tea.
This is exemplary body of work of the history of tea, its origins and the history that framed tea . I appreciate that the author gave the reader a history of tea in china, its import to other areas and how it is grown and farmed. This truly gives the reader insight as to the intricacies of growing different types of tea. He also speaks to the beliefs behind tea and its qualities to heal and transform.
I enjoyed the British history here with extensive information on the tea trade, how it framed wars and became a staple of English life that it is today. I was raised on tea as my Mother was English/Scottish and tea remains of utmost importance in my life . When one has a true appreciation for tea this is the book to read to learn its origins. Very well done . I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to the publisher and to the author for the opportunity. My review opinion is my own. This is a exceptional body of work .
This is exemplary body of work of the history of tea, its origins and the history that framed tea . I appreciate that the author gave the reader a history of tea in china, its import to other areas and how it is grown and farmed. This truly gives the reader insight as to the intricacies of growing different types of tea. He also speaks to the beliefs behind tea and its qualities to heal and transform.
I enjoyed the British history here with extensive information on the tea trade, how it framed wars and became a staple of English life that it is today. I was raised on tea as my Mother was English/Scottish and tea remains of utmost importance in my life . When one has a true appreciation for tea this is the book to read to learn its origins. Very well done . I highly recommend this book.
Thank you to the publisher and to the author for the opportunity. My review opinion is my own. This is a exceptional body of work .
May 30, 2020
Thank you to Pen and Sword and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
As someone who consumes a good 6+ cups of tea a day, I knew that this was a history book for me. It isn't a completely in-depth history of tea, but it does give a good basis on how tea arrived in Britain, the trajectory of its status in Britain, and how the market evolved. As the title might imply, it doesn't attempt to hide the dark and problematic history of tea in Britain, and the relationships between Britain and China, and Britain and India. Excellent use and inclusion of primary sources!
My only fault with the book is that it should be titled A Dark History of Tea in Britain, as it really only looks at Britain. It is a wonderful study of that, but to be clear, I would reflect that in the title.
As someone who consumes a good 6+ cups of tea a day, I knew that this was a history book for me. It isn't a completely in-depth history of tea, but it does give a good basis on how tea arrived in Britain, the trajectory of its status in Britain, and how the market evolved. As the title might imply, it doesn't attempt to hide the dark and problematic history of tea in Britain, and the relationships between Britain and China, and Britain and India. Excellent use and inclusion of primary sources!
My only fault with the book is that it should be titled A Dark History of Tea in Britain, as it really only looks at Britain. It is a wonderful study of that, but to be clear, I would reflect that in the title.
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