TY  - BOOK
AU  - Ellis,Markman
AU  - Coulton,Richard
AU  - Mauger,Matthew
TI  - Empire of tea: the Asian leaf that conquered the world 
SN  - 9781780234403
AV  - GT2907.G7 E45 2015
PY  - 2015///
CY  - London
PB  - Reaktion Books
KW  - East India Company
KW  - London
KW  - gnd
KW  - Association Trans Europe Experts
KW  - China
KW  - Tea
KW  - Great Britain
KW  - History
KW  - Tea trade
N1  - Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-314) and index; Early European Encounters with Tea --; Establishing the Taste for Tea in Britain --; The Tea Trade with China --; The Elevation of Tea --; The Natural Philosophy of Tea --; The Market for Tea in Britain --; The British Way of Tea --; Smuggling and Taxation --; The Democratization of Tea Drinking --; Tea in the Politics of Empire --; The National Drink of Victorian Britain --; Twentieth-century Tea --; Epilogue: Global Tea
N2  - 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. Now the world's most popular drink, tea was one of the first truly global products to find a mass market, with tea drinking now stereotypically associated with British identity. Imported by the East India Company in increasing quantities across the eighteenth century, tea inaugurated the first regular exchange between China and Britain, both commercial and cultural. While European scientists struggled to make sense of its natural history and medicinal properties, the delicate flavour profile and hot preparation of tea inspired poets, artists and satirists. Becoming central to everyday life, tea was embroiled in controversy, from the gossip of the domestic tea table to the civil disorder occasioned by smuggling, and the political scandal of the Boston Tea Party to the violent conflict of the Anglo- Chinese Opium War. Such stories shaped the contexts for the imperial tea industry that later developed across India and Sri Lanka
ER  -