For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History
A dramatic historical narrative of the man who stole the secret of tea from China In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of...
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A dramatic historical narrative of the man who stole the secret of tea from China In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China—territory forbidden to foreigners—to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China—a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.Disguised in Mandarin robes, Fortune ventured deep into the country, confronting pirates, hostile climate, and his own untrustworthy men as he made his way to the epicenter of tea production, the remote Wu Yi Shan hills. One of the most daring acts of corporate espionage in history, Fortune's pursuit of China's ancient secret makes for a classic nineteenth-century adventure tale, one in which the fate of empires hinges on the feats of one extraordinary man.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780670021529 (0670021520)
Publish date: March 18th 2010
Publisher: Viking Adult
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Biography,
History,
European Literature,
British Literature,
Cultural,
Food And Drink,
Food,
Book Club,
India,
Asia,
China,
Tea
bookshelves: nonfiction, autumn-2012, history, published-2009, biography, colonial-overlords, victorian, recreational-drugs, war, fraudio, china, india, gardening, pirates-smugglers-wreckers Read on November 05, 2012 Read by the author herself.Blurb - A dramatic historical narrative of the man wh...
Ms. Rose has written a very interesting popular history, that would have been strengthened with more detailed discussions of several subjects: e.g., the relationship between tea and opium, the tea manufacturing process, the playing out of the demise of the East India Co., and the rise of the tea cl...
Read by the author herself.Blurb - A dramatic historical narrative of the man who stole the secret of tea from China.In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip...
This history seemed scant compared to what I was expecting as the norm in the history/natural history/biography genre, though it had its moments. Overall, it was more biographical and much less informational than I hoped for. I would have been reasonably happy changing my expectations, but I'm surpr...
As a self-proclaimed theic (one who is addicted to tea), I am thrilled someone, in modern times, has tackled this vast, interwoven tale of a name that changed so much but it little remembered. Tea is like wine. Growing seasons, climates, picking times, drying, storing and shipping all affect the...
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