Category
Tea travelled out of China by mule to Tibet, by caravan to Russia and by ship to Europe—different routes, different centuries, different evidence. A corrected tour of the trade routes that shaped the modern cup.
by Sameera
Tea arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, but it took a century of colonial grocers and blenders to turn Australia into one of the world's most devoted tea-drinking nations.
by Sameera
On a December night in 1773, men—some dressed as Mohawk warriors—threw 92,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor. The target was a tax, a monopoly, and the authority behind both.
by Sameera
Opium wars, Indian plantations, and a monopoly on Britain's China trade that lasted from 1600 to 1833. The story of how a single corporation turned tea from a Chinese curiosity into a global commodity.
by Sameera
Long before container ships, tea bricks crossed deserts on camel-back. The 1,500-year story of tea's first journey out of China.
by Sameera
Britain's appetite for Chinese tea created a catastrophic trade deficit. The 'solution' was opium — and two wars that broke a civilisation.
by Sameera
Around 2737 BCE, according to legend, a few wild leaves drifted into a Chinese emperor's pot of boiling water. The world's most-consumed beverage after water began with an accident.
by Sameera
How a Chinese leaf became Japan's ceremony, Britain's empire, India's economy, and a half-billion daily cups across nine time zones.
by Sameera
