Excerpt from inside cover: For more than two thousand years, tea has calmed us and awoken us, fascinated us and driven us. It is the second most popular drink in the world-after water.
How has this simple brew made such a profound impact... whether we drink it or not? In the third century CE, raw tea leaves were brewed to make a harsh, bitter concoction used as medicine. But that was only the beginning. Tea has also served as a meditation tool, a form of currency, and a motivation for political change. And on its way to today's tearooms and homes, tea has had an unusual-and dramatic-influence on aspects of modern life, like globalization, the opium industry, and the scarcity of the Asian elephant. Tea has touched our lives like no other beverage, connecting us all... the Mongols to the monks, form the pluckers to the emperors, to the harried modern-day person looking for a moment of calm. Engaging and offbeat, the story of this drink's rise to global power will entertain and enlighten you. |
