Tea has a rich and well-documented past. The beverage originated in Asia long before making its way to seventeenth-century London, where it became an exotic, highly sought after commodity. Over the subsequent two centuries, tea's powerful psychoactive properties seduced British society, becoming popular across the nation from castle to cottage.
Empire of Tea is a cultural history of tea, from its ancient origins in China to its position as the world's favourite beverage today. It shows how tea was one of the first truly global commodities, and gave rise to the earliest cultural and economic exchanges between China and Britain.
