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For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History

Sarah Rose (Goodreads Author)

3.78 · Rating details · 3,140 ratings · 532 reviews

"If ever there was a book to read in the company of a nice cuppa, this is it." -The Washington Post

In the dramatic story of one of the greatest acts of corporate espionage ever committed, Sarah Rose recounts the fascinating, unlikely circumstances surrounding a turning point in economic history. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the British East India Company fac ...more

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Paperback, 259 pages

Published February 22nd 2011 by Penguin Books (first published March 1st 2009)

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Making Tea, Making Japan by Kristin Surak

Steeped in History by Beatrice Hohenegger

Tea Tuesdays

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Jun 17, 2010 George rated it liked it · review of another edition

Sarah Rose focuses on an important, but somewhat obscure subplot of the history of the British imperialism in Asia -- Scottish botanist Robert Fortune's employment by the East India Company to steal tea plants, as well as the relevant technologies and expertise, from the Chinese. His work will allow India to start producing well-regarded tea of its own, taking some of the power away from the Chinese and helping tea to grow in popularity by opening up the market and reducing prices. It's an impor ...more

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Aug 11, 2010 Kathy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

This book should be riveting, but I found it less than interesting. I think this is so because I listened to it on audio and was unengaged by the reader. The book is read by the author, who is a fine writer, but a terrible reader: to the point of being outright distracting. Her voice is little-girlish, and she lacks flow when reading. I think I will go back and actually read this, because there is a good story in here. Perhaps it won't seem as choppy when I read the text. I strongly caution anyo ...more

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Aug 27, 2013 Hannah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historicals, 2013-reads, non-fiction

Rating Clarification: 4.5 Stars

Engaging, highly readable and very informative. The perfect reading balance of entertainment and education. Provided just what I love about well-written non-fiction. 1/2 star deducted due to a very lackluster, tacked-on conclusion.

Recommended.

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Jun 30, 2017 Raghu rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Whenever one thinks of the East India company, one thinks of its gradual evolution from a small trading post in a corner of India to eventually occupying the country and ruling it in the interests of Britain. But, little does one reflect on what the Company did in China, which had far-reaching consequences for itself and the world. Prior to the 19th century, China held the secrets of how to cultivate Tea, harvest and manufacture it on mass scale for the markets around the world. The British wer
Whenever one thinks of the East India company, one thinks of its gradual evolution from a small trading post in a corner of India to eventually occupying the country and ruling it in the interests of Britain. But, little does one reflect on what the Company did in China, which had far-reaching consequences for itself and the world. Prior to the 19th century, China held the secrets of how to cultivate Tea, harvest and manufacture it on mass scale for the markets around the world. The British were hooked on this drink. They were importing ever increasing amounts of tea from China by the beginning of the 19th century. This cost the empire ever more silver and bullion by way of payments. Financially, it became imperative for Britain to manufacture tea themselves in their colonies. In fact, tea was also made in Assam in India but the quality was poor and could not compete with what China offered.

The solution England found was in Botany. In the opening years of the industrial era, botanic research was a counterpart to today's industrial research Laboratories. Britain employed Botanical imperialism as a way of making colonies pay their way. Plant hunters became the R&D men of the empire. The East India company decided that they must send one of their botanists to venture deep into China, in the forbidden tea-growing areas and steal not only the plants but also the know-how of cultivating and manufacturing it. British botanists had already done similar errands in China before. In fact, China is the source of many of the plants that adorn the British landscapes today, like the yellow forsythias, the rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias and many others. This book is the intriguing tale of how England accomplished this espionage operation in China where Green tea and Black tea were grown. It is the tale of how they stole the know-how and the seeds to make the Himalayas in India the center of tea production and capture the markets from China.

Robert Fortune, a botanist from Scotland, was chosen by the East India Company for this job. He was a good choice because Fortune had already spent three years in China, collecting many of its botanical treasures like the winter jasmine, the Fortunella and the white wisteria and shipping them to Britain. Stealing tea from China was a dangerous and criminal endeavour but Fortune was excited by the idea and agreed to do it. He set out to venture into the tea-growing regions in the interior of China, to the provinces of Zhejiang and Ahui where Green Tea was grown and then on to the remote mountains of Wuyi Shan in search of Black tea. He disguised himself as a Mandarin, with a pigtail and shaven head. He employed an entourage of Chinese workers, guides and coolies, some of whom were loyal and some others somewhat disloyal. The journey was nothing if not adventurous, as Fortune had to constantly make sure that he was not found out as a foreigner in these forbidden areas. Pirates and dacoits harassed them on their way but Fortune ended up successful. Not only did he evade detection, he also successfully managed to steal seeds, plants and the knowledge and bring them to his masters in India. All this was done not without a little help from the Chinese themselves in return for some silver. Colonialism was always aided by compradors in selling their own nation’s wealth and subjugating their own people. This is what happened in India as well. The Chinese rulers eventually found out that their tea secrets have been stolen but they realized it too late to do anything about it. Britain captured the tea markets with their premium quality teas grown in Darjeeling in India. The author declares: “Robert Fortune's theft helped spread tea to a wider world at lower prices. He democratized a luxury, and the world has been enjoying it ever since."

The book is more than just about Tea alone. Partly, it details Chinese culture and tradition as well. There are interesting paragraphs on the concepts of Mianxi and Guanxi, two inescapable facts of life in China. Guanxi is about the individual existing in a network of influence, a matrix of duties and social connections. Mianxi is about Face, the loss and gain of it. It is a Confucian concept, where one gains face and an increase in social status when social obligations were met. In reverse, one loses face if he fails those whom he is socially connected or obligated to. The Confucian tradition also believed in a kind of caste hierarchy. Occupations were seen in a hierarchy, with the highest belonging to scholars and poets, who preserved beauty and celebrated order; peasants came next, the cogs in the national machine. Merchants were ranked at the bottom of the collective heap, earning a living off the hard labor of others.

Reading the book, I could not but think about all the talk of industrial espionage by China today. There is the allegation that the Chinese steal intellectual property and do not play by the rules of the game. This book is a timely reminder on the predatory practices of the world’s first multi-national, the British East India company. The East India company’s depredations in India are well-documented. But, the story of how the Company stole the secrets of cultivating and manufacturing tea from a secretive China shows how the British botanist used every ruse in the book in this effort. Their conduct was no different from what the Chinese are accused of today. Capitalism has its own insatiable impetus to seek more resources, more labor and more markets in order that it can expand. This is what propelled British capitalism to subjugate India and go after its wealth. It is this same urge that wanted to steal tea plants and its manufacturing secrets from China so that they can capture the world market for British made Indian tea. Now, in the 21st century, it is this same expansionist urge that makes China aggressively seek industrial secrets from the West by any means.

Though this is a well-written book which sustains interest all the way, there are a couple of glaring inaccuracies in the book. The Prologue claims that opium financed the management of India and that England believed that India would eventually become self-sustaining. Many recent books have shown that India was not only self-sustaining but actually financed Britain’s rise from the 18th to the 20th centuries. India not only funded the East India company’s disastrous war in Afghanistan in 1839 -1842 but later on, both the World wars as well in terms of men and material. In the first page of the book, the author refers to India, as a subcontinent of princely states united under the banner of Great Britain in 1757. The Union of India was actually accomplished by independent India nearly two hundred years later. Elsewhere in the book, Buddhism is described as expounding a philosophy that all beings pass through a series of lives, paying for the sins of one life with a good deed in the next. Religions originating from the Indian soil do not believe in sin or original sin in the Judeo-Christian sense. The idea of Karma follows rather from the cycle of cause and effect.

Finally, the author posits a grandiose theory that ‘there was a time when maps of the world were redrawn in the name of plants, when two empires, Britain and China, went to war over two flowers: the poppy and the camellia’. Even if one thinks it may be a bit of a hyperbole, the idea is well argued in the narrative. Anyone interested in Tea or the East India Company or history in general, would enjoy reading this book.

...more

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Jun 10, 2010 Jodi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: tea lovers, English &/or Chinese history fans

Shelves: books-about-china, non-fiction, books-about-england

In preparation for my trip to China a year and a half ago I read everything about China I could get my hands on. I still love to read books about China because it is such an interesting culture......this book didn't disappoint. I struggled with 3 or 4 stars though because sometimes I had to go back and reread because it seemed to jump from one idea to the next with little transition. However, the story of Robert Fortune infiltrating a country that was pretty much closed to the outside world and In preparation for my trip to China a year and a half ago I read everything about China I could get my hands on. I still love to read books about China because it is such an interesting culture......this book didn't disappoint. I struggled with 3 or 4 stars though because sometimes I had to go back and reread because it seemed to jump from one idea to the next with little transition. However, the story of Robert Fortune infiltrating a country that was pretty much closed to the outside world and managing to steal hundreds of thousands of tea plants and seeds fascinating. Fortune's espionage was good for England because they were able to drink quality tea for a lower price but bad for China because they lost their greatest national treasure that the outside world clamored for in great numbers! Today there are foreign policies to protect countries from being taken advantage of in this way!!!

I enjoyed reading more about the proper rituals involved in serving tea - In China I was shown how the first cup of tea is always dumped out in order to wash out all the tannins and impurities. The lady teaching me said the first cup is only for nosy neighbors or people you don't like. In the book, it was stated that the first cup is for your enemies because tea business is so dirty with tea leaves drying in the sun among insects, and dirt. The book mentioned that tea was produce in need of washing - never thought of it that way before! I also enjoyed learning how tea was picked (only the top-most tender leaves), dried in the sun, pressed, then baked until it is five times smaller than when it started. Also, I always wondered what the difference was between green tea and black tea - now I know. They are from the same plant, but black tea is allowed to ferment longer. Interesting!!! I also found it interesting that at one point the Chinese were putting dyes in the tea for the Western market because they though it would look better to the Western eye. Sadly, the dye they used was poison - iron ferrocyanide (cyanide) for a blue color and yellow powder that was gypsum/calcium sulfate! Yikes! When I bought tea out in San Francisco the man showed me blue tea and mentioned that it was from the region not for the blue hands people had when making it. I didn't understand but now I do - he wanted to make sure I knew the blue tea I bought was not colored with cyanide! Eeek!

I will drink my next cup of tea with so much more respect......but should I enjoy a nice cup of British Earl Gray, Darjeeling, or some of my Chinese blends......hmmmmmmmm........what a dilemma! ...more

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Feb 06, 2014 Jennifer rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish, audio-books

Some authors should not read their own books. Imagine an excitable fourth grader reading her own screenplay aloud, doing all the voices. We made it through one disk.

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Mar 17, 2015 Abigail Bok rated it really liked it · review of another edition

For All the Tea in China is an adventure story in the guise of a history book, and is a delight to read. It follows the work of botanist Robert Fortune, who in the 1840s was tasked by the British East India Company to travel illegally into the Chinese hinterland and steal high-quality tea plants and seeds, as well as the secrets to processing both green and black tea. The Company wished to undercut the Chinese tea trade and establish tea plantations in India, where they would be under the Compan For All the Tea in China is an adventure story in the guise of a history book, and is a delight to read. It follows the work of botanist Robert Fortune, who in the 1840s was tasked by the British East India Company to travel illegally into the Chinese hinterland and steal high-quality tea plants and seeds, as well as the secrets to processing both green and black tea. The Company wished to undercut the Chinese tea trade and establish tea plantations in India, where they would be under the Company’s control. At this time, China closely guarded the secrets of tea cultivation and processing, and did not allow foreigners to set foot on Chinese soil except for a few licensed trading ports. The Company saw Indian production of tea as a way to control every stage of the trade and avoid the limitations and inconveniences of trading with China.

Our dauntless hero disguises himself as a mandarin from a province nobody has ever visited and boldly goes where no Westerner had ever gone. He encounters pirates, opium addicts, banditti and Buddhist monks. The rip-roaring fun of his adventures and humor of clashing cultural assumptions is tempered with awareness of the damage done and tragedies caused by Western invader/explorers in their encounters with the other cultures of the world. Fortune is a classic of the European explorer type, bold, wily, adaptable, and locked in his own cultural assumptions; I kept hearing the Randy Newman song “The Great Nations of Europe (in the Fifteenth Century)” when reading about him.

Beyond the picaresque story line, the book is full of interesting information and offers a broader perspective on the effect of the nineteenth-century tea trade on a global scale, and I savored every page. The ending felt a bit rushed—or perhaps I simply didn’t want it to end. The last chapter rushes us through a summary of what came after Fortune’s travels that was so packed with interesting factoids that I was left a little dizzied; but it made sense that those sequelae should be only summarized, as they weren’t the core of the story. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history of the British Empire, trade, botanical exploration, nineteenth-century China or India, or travel adventure. ...more

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Jun 24, 2011 Rachel rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, history, england, china, meh

Simplistic, disjointed, poorly edited (hello, typos, I didn't expect to see so many of you here today), and NO FOOTNOTES. How the hell do you write a nonfiction history book and have no information about where you got your information? Also, things that were clearly from one (ahem, RACIST) man's memoirs were stated as fact. What. The. Hell.

Example: One tale about Robert Fortune (the botanist/adventurer/world-traveler/spy that is essentially the main character of this story) has him on his boat Simplistic, disjointed, poorly edited (hello, typos, I didn't expect to see so many of you here today), and NO FOOTNOTES. How the hell do you write a nonfiction history book and have no information about where you got your information? Also, things that were clearly from one (ahem, RACIST) man's memoirs were stated as fact. What. The. Hell.

Example: One tale about Robert Fortune (the botanist/adventurer/world-traveler/spy that is essentially the main character of this story) has him on his boat with a Chinese crew when they are attacked by pirates. According to this "nonfiction" book, while the entire crew flees below as cannonballs are whizzing overhead (including one that juuuuuuuust misses Fortune, not that he even bats an eye), Fortune takes aim at the pirate ship with a shotgun in one hand and a pistol in the other, two-fisted shooting his way to victory and causing the pirate ship (that is stocked with cannons, remember) to turn tail and flee. At which point the Chinese crew emerges from below deck to prostrate themselves in front of Fortune, honoring him for his bravery. (Think, "WE'RE NOT WORTHY!" from Wayne's World.)

Now, a good historian retelling this from what I assume is Fortune's memoirs, because they appear to be the only primary source Rose has used here (although we'll never know because, again, no citations, no footnotes, no information....), would say that while this is the only firsthand account of this incident, we must take it with a HUGE grain of salt. After all, travel memoirs were mega-bestsellers in Victorian England and the spicier ones sold best. Also, readers should always be suspicious of tales in which the writer of the only known record comes off as the big hero--there might be a bit of embellishment. Also, there's the whole racist tone of the whole thing that makes it doubtful that any of the Chinese crew got interviewed about the incident.

All in all, although Sarah Rose can tell a good story, no doubt about it, this book is NOT worth reading. I'm kind of shocked that it has such good reviews. ...more

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Oct 27, 2017 Clare O'Beara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: asia-historical, asia-fact, nature, non-fiction, economics, environment-and-climate, british-historical, trees

I've really enjoyed reading this book every evening. Robert Fortune, head of the Physic Garden in Chelsea, London, was sent out to China to search for and steal the secrets and seeds of tea.

The Scot led a charmed life for at this time, 1840s, China was largely closed to foreign travellers and resented having lost a war to better military technology and being forced to trade on British terms. The author makes no bones about explaining what the East India Tea Company - the world's first global co ...more

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Aug 06, 2016 Peter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is a book of many parts. Part history, it recounts the Imperialistic reach of the British quest for tea; part biography, it tells the story of Robert Fortune, the man who brought the tea of China to the cups of the British household and in the process perhaps perpetrated the greatest theft of property in history. The book is also a lush travelogue of the Far East with stories of beautiful mountains, pirates, Fortune assuming disguises to fool the Chinese, and the habits of Chinese household ...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Camelia Rose rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history, china

Robert Fortune, an arrogant colonist, a daring spy, a keen gardener and botanist, disguised himself as a Mandarin, a member of the ruling class of Qing Empire, managed to steal and smuggle tea seeds and tea plants out of China with the help from his Chinese servants and translator. Fortune played a vital role in bringing China's 2000 years' tea monopoly to an end.

The book paints a vivid picture of the dealing between a British colonist and his Chinese compradors. Both sides considered the other Robert Fortune, an arrogant colonist, a daring spy, a keen gardener and botanist, disguised himself as a Mandarin, a member of the ruling class of Qing Empire, managed to steal and smuggle tea seeds and tea plants out of China with the help from his Chinese servants and translator. Fortune played a vital role in bringing China's 2000 years' tea monopoly to an end.

The book paints a vivid picture of the dealing between a British colonist and his Chinese compradors. Both sides considered the other side cunning and untrustworthy yet somewhat relied on each other and developed certain intimacy. At the end of his tea hunting, Fortune, on behalf of the notorious East Indian Company, recruited some tea experts and accompanied them to India. The botanist's true love for tea plants must have allowed him to develop a relationship with these Chinese tea experts more than just master and servants.

After ten years' adventure in China, Fortune still could not grasp the essence of "face" in Chinese culture. However, he was not entirely incapable of understanding. Born into a farmer's family in Scotland but considered himself educated and civilised, he knew to appreciate the "literate peasants" of Wang's clan. He had a sense of shame when a well-respected and physically ill monk bowed to him because of his fake facade of a "nobleman" of the ruling class. I want to believe this was one of the qualities made him successful in his mission.

Tunxi, the village near Yellow Mountain in Anhui province where Fortune went on his first tea hunting, is still one of the best tea growing regions in China. Green Tun is still a sought-after tea brand today. The second tea hunting trip took Fortune to Wuyi Mountain, where the famous ancient tea trees, Da Hong Pao, are still located. Today's tea plants in the world, no matter it's from Indian, Sri Lanka, Malaysian, Kenya or Turkey, are all offsprings of these holy tea trees in China.

Unlike the Guardian book review claimed, For All Tea In China did mention other British tea hunters before Robert Fortune. The book did not cover much of Fortune's personal life because of the lack of materials. Upon his death, the botanist's wife burnt all his letters and journals. The writer supplemented Robert Fortune's story with history of tea and opium trade and how East Indian Company met its end.

How unfortunate that the label of opium smoker permanently attached to the old China, and how fortunate tea drinking became fashionable all over the world!

Overall, For All Tea In China makes an interesting and informative read. ...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Melinda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Melinda by: newleaph@gmail.com

I had heard this story from a friend of mine (somewhat embellished) for many years, and when I found this book I bought it immediately.
By the mid 1800s, England was importing vast amounts of tea from China. (In fact, it was the British East India Company which had been granted a monopoly on the importation of tea into Britain.). In order to create a comparable trade, England imported opium into China. This was an extremely lucrative business for both China and Britain, but China did not want to

I had heard this story from a friend of mine (somewhat embellished) for many years, and when I found this book I bought it immediately.
By the mid 1800s, England was importing vast amounts of tea from China. (In fact, it was the British East India Company which had been granted a monopoly on the importation of tea into Britain.). In order to create a comparable trade, England imported opium into China. This was an extremely lucrative business for both China and Britain, but China did not want to pay the price. Britain however wanted not only the tea, but the huge taxes which were charged on the tea (remember the Boston Tea party of 1773?). The government of China however did not want vast amounts of their people being opium addicts and and tried to close off the trade in opium and trade in general. This led to the Opium Wars, which Britain won and the concessions which China had to grant to England, such as Hong Kong, and the ability to enter and trade in selected areas, such as Shanghai. India was right next door to China and had similar growing conditions, but the native Indian tea was far inferior. Problem was, Chinese tea was a secret business, grown far into the mountains of China and only grown, picked, and prepared by Chinese. So- how to get the Chinese tea plants and learn the tricks of the trade? The British East India Company, which at that time owned all of India, hired a Scottish horticulturist to go to China, infiltrate both the green and black tea plantations (at that time the Brits thought they were two totally different plants), steal tea plants and seeds, learn the techniques of preparation and then hire experienced Chinese to come to India and teach the Indians and British what to do. This was no small feat, and it took Robert Fortune years to do this. The first plants and seeds he managed to ferret out of China died on the year+ trek to coastal China, across the ocean to India and up the trek to the Himalayas. Only 8 of hundreds of plants survived and none of the seeds. He didn't even learn of the failure for almost two years because he was well on his way to the southern black tea fields.
Obviously, eventually he succeeded and the story of how he did so and how and what he discovered along the way is a fascinating read. ...more

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May 11, 2020 Jim rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: women-writers, history, food

Sarah Rose's For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World's Favourite Drink is a highly informative book, especially for someone like me, who drinks an average of one whole pot of tea per day -- both hot and iced.

Before 1850 or so, the export of tea was controlled by China, which did not allow the plant to be grown elsewhere. The tea that was sold to Britain had small amounts of cyanide and other substances to make the product more "attractive" to buyers. And ...more

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Oct 24, 2019 Julie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the story of the lengths that England and the British East India Company went about to monopolize the tea industry away from China. Robert Fortune, gardener, botanist and plant hunter was sent by England to secretly gather plants from China to send to India (where England had British Rule). Aiding him in the transplantation of the plants (besides some Chinese citizens) was the newly invented Wardian case, a predecessor of the terrarium. This was definitely a hard to put down book. So int ...more

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May 12, 2019 Simon Eskildsen rated it liked it · review of another edition

An enjoyable account of likely the largest IP-theft in history. We may think of 'intellectual property' in terms of patents, but horticulture is a legit application of the term: seeds, growing, and processing. In the mid-1900s Britain wanted tea, and they traded it with China for, primarily, opium. Wanting to ease their dependence on China, continue their mercantilistic pursuits, as well as utilizing their Indian colony further, they decided to send in Mr. Fortune to visit the tea gardens of Chi ...more

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Jul 15, 2013 Liz rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: factual-history

I loved this book.
On Amazon a few people have pointed out inaccuracies such as monetary conversions and mixing up 'English' and 'British'. Honestly, I didn't notice any of these and as I haven't got a memory for facts and figures it doesn't bother me much. What I did notice was a great story.

I've read a lot of factual books and they seem to fall into two categories:
Those which present just the facts - there will be very little dialogue or embellishment
Those which craft a story from the facts - t ...more

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Nov 26, 2017 Shahine Ardeshir rated it liked it · review of another edition

What interested me in picking this book up, and what kept me reading all the way through was the story: How the British stole tea-making from China, and started growing it in India. The biggest heist in the history of the world! As an Indian, I took the fact that we grow copious amounts of world class tea here for granted. I didn't realize that this was all a function of our colonial past, and so I wanted to know more. It formed part of my ever-growing interest in the true impact of colonisation ...more

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Oct 20, 2017 Heidi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book has it all - well written, great history, botany, linking historical periods with nutrition, travel, shipping of plants... I knew of Fortune’s Double Yellow rose, but had no idea of Robert Fortune’s other botanical exploits in China. If you like plants, history and tea, this is the book for you. I can’t wait for Sarah Rose’s next book.
I listened to the audio book. It was read by the author. Took a bit to get used to the voice, but totally fine once I adjusted.

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Apr 30, 2011 Michael Pryor rated it liked it · review of another edition

Great story about the espionage behind the British acquisition of tea and its transplanting to India, but the writing plodded a little - perhaps imitating the meandering journeys? Worth a read, though.

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Mar 05, 2016 Syafiqa rated it really liked it

I love this book! I learned so much about tea, horticulture, and East India Company. Ms Rose does a great job to describe the history in easy manner. The book does seem bias I guess, written by westerner, it kept on giving the impression that Chinamen are all opportunist

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Aug 24, 2014 Valerie rated it liked it

Shelves: arewethereyet, history-book-club

This story of industrial espionage, is not as riveting as it could have been. I was fascinated by the technology that allowed plant cuttings to be nurtured on long sea voyages.

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Sep 16, 2017 Jennifer rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I read this in the fall of 2012. I was fascinated by the history of tea production in the mid-1800s. A must read for any tea lover.

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Feb 08, 2018 Autoclette rated it liked it · review of another edition

How such an interesting subject, full of vivid possibilities, could be rendered in such a droll way is beyond me.

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Dec 20, 2018 Elizabeth rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british, biography, reference, non-fiction, history, science, victorians, asia

This book was utterly fascinating! I learned so much! Thank you for sending me this book, Jennifer!

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Apr 01, 2020 Ram Kaushik rated it liked it

Shelves: geopolitics-history

An excellent dramatization of how the East India Company hired a botanist adventurer to steal tea from one colony (China) to start tea plantations in another (India). Ms. Rose has clearly done a lot of research into the period and manages to thread a fairly coherent narrative through the lens of economics and colonial history. Her writing has the attention-grabbing immediacy of fiction so this book is definitely a compelling read. I would have rated it four stars except for some flaws in scholar ...more

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Dec 14, 2010 Kay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: garden-botany, nonfiction, exploration-adventure, espionage, british-history-civ, india, commodity_history, china

The Thrill to Conquer, but Politely

The exotic histories of everyday items never fails to astonish me. Coffee, tea, salt, chocolate, tobacco, rubber, oil, opium, cotton, cod, spices, sugar: these stand out as some of the major commodities upon which empires have been built. Reading the exploits of intrepid botanists, who scaled mountain peaks and slashed through rain forests undertaking searches for new and useful plants, has long been a favorite adventure genre. Sarah Rose's For All the Tea in China stands out as one of the more entertaining entries into what might be called 'commodity histories.'

At the center of the tale is a trade balance: English (Indian) opium for Chinese tea. China had a complete monopoly on tea, a luxury that had become a necessity in British households. The cultivation and curing of tea was a closely-guarded secret, one which the British hoped to wrest from the Chinese, particularly as there was little to prevent the Chinese from growing their own opium, leaving the British with a potentially ruinous trade imbalance.

And so the East India Company, which marketed the Indian opium which was traded to China for its tea, decided to get the jump on the Chinese by stealing tea plants, seeds, and cultivation practices. They already knew that tea could be cultivated in India, but the native varieties were far inferior to the Chinese product. When the Company first set out to purloin tea, in fact, it didn't even know if green and black teas came from the same plants (they did).

To carry out this project, the Company sent one man, Robert Fortune, giving him a formidable task: steal thousands of plants and seeds and ensure that they reach India safely; find out how tea is grown and cured; and last but not least, procure a number of tea specialists to be sent to Indian tea plantations to oversee production.

The felicitously named Fortune was the perfect man for the job: brave, resourceful, bold, knowledgeable, and unsentimental, bordering on thick skinned. His adventures in the interior of China, where he posed as a foreign mandarin and faced countless dangers, is the heart of the tale. Sarah Rose does a fine job of recreating the thrill of his discoveries, taking the reader along high mountain passes, into the lurching bowels of cargo holds, and through lush mist-laden valleys.

But she does an equally creditable job of explaining how vital this feat of espionage was in the shifting world order. It was, according to Rose, "the greatest theft of protected trade secrets that the world has ever known." Wryly, she notes, the effect of a cup of tea, which produces a mild lift in comparison to other stimulants, was in keeping with "Britain's reigning temper: the thrill to conquer, but politely."

And conquer they did.

...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Caroline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

[For All the Tea in China : How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History] by Sarah Rose is a wonderful book tracing the origins of tea since the 1800s. The journey of green and black tea from the mountains of China to the slopes of the Himalayas to the common teapots in England is outlined in detail, thanks to the memoir and copious notes taken by Robert Fortune, the man responsible for not only bringing high quality teas to England but also for bringing back many flowering p [For All the Tea in China : How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History] by Sarah Rose is a wonderful book tracing the origins of tea since the 1800s. The journey of green and black tea from the mountains of China to the slopes of the Himalayas to the common teapots in England is outlined in detail, thanks to the memoir and copious notes taken by Robert Fortune, the man responsible for not only bringing high quality teas to England but also for bringing back many flowering plants and hedgerows that are now found in many an English garden.

For such a slim volume, this book packs a great deal of fascinating information. There's the journeys of Robert Fortune itself and his adventures among the Chinese during the mid 1800s, how he disguised himself as a mandarin to avoid hostilities, his brush with pirates in the high seas, and his experiments which improved the success rate in transporting delicate plants and seeds from China to India and back to England. In addition to this, bearing in mind the focus of this book being tea, we are also treated to an insight into the secrets of tea growing and harvesting, which had remained closely guarded secrets by the Chinese, until they were uncovered by Robert Fortune and smuggled out of China. We're even given tips to the proper way to brew a good pot of tea.

Lest you think this is nothing but a horticultural lesson, Ms Rose, includes relevant historical notes on the Taiping Revolution, the Opium Wars, the beginnings of the Indian movement towards independence, Britain's economic and industrial growth and the smuggling of Chinese coolies out of China to other parts of the world. She explains not only what these events are, but what caused them and why they were important events.

Robert Fortune's notes on the Chinese secrets of tea-growing and harvesting, in addition to his hiring and transporting Chinese tea experts to India, can be considered industrial espionage, for surely if he had been discovered by the Chinese government, he would have been arrested and possibly executed.

Fascinating read. ...more

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Oct 25, 2013 Kirk Battle rated it it was amazing

Part adventure story, part economics of trade, part social history, it does a really good job of covering all the angles of what's happening in the world. It helps that I'm a tea fanatic and only order the good stuff, so learning about the tea making process has been fun as the English steal it. You basically had these two countries selling each other drugs, the British dumping opium into China and then the Chinese selling tea to the English. It's neat that the main character is this botanist wh ...more

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Oct 01, 2018 Matthew J. rated it really liked it

A very readable look at the adventures and exploits of Robert Fortune, a 'plant hunter' sent by the British East India Company to steal the secrets of tea from China. Against a backdrop of world-wide technological and social upheaval, at a time when England's power was reaching it's peak, when India was under England's thumb and China was still a shrouded mystery, Fortune goes beyond the territories set aside for foreigners, and heads into the deepest parts of China. Facing hardships, questionab ...more

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About Sarah Rose

Sarah Rose

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There is more than one author with this name.

Sarah Rose is a journalist and author of D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis and Helped Win World War II, and the critically acclaimed For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History.

She was a news columnist at the Wall Street Journal, and her features have appeared in Outside, ...more

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