For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History

by Sarah Rose

Overview

"If ever there was a book to read in the company of a nice cuppa, this is it." -The Washington Post

In the dramatic story of one of the greatest acts of corporate espionage ever committed, Sarah Rose recounts the fascinating, unlikely circumstances surrounding a turning point in economic history. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the British East India Company faced the loss of its monopoly on the fantastically lucrative tea trade with China, forcing it to make the drastic decision of sending Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to steal the crop from deep within China and bring it back to British plantations in India. Fortune's danger-filled odyssey, magnificently recounted here, reads like adventure fiction, revealing a long-forgotten chapter of the past and the wondrous origins of a seemingly ordinary beverage.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143118749
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/22/2011
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	75,350
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Sarah Rose is a journalist and author of the critically acclaimed For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World’s Favorite Drink and Changed History. As a journalist, Rose has covered a broad range of beats, including international politics and economics during the Hong Kong handover, finance and business during the end of the dot-com bubble, and the environment. She now writes about food and travel for the Wall Street Journal, Men’s Journal, and Bon Appetit, among others.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Min River, China, 1845 6

2 East India House, City of London, January 12, 1848 22

3 Chelsea Physic Garden, May 7, 1848 35

4 Shanghai to Hangzhou, September 1848 54

5 Zhejiang Province near Hangzhou, October 1848 67

6 A Green Tea Factory, Yangtze River, October 1848 83

7 House of Wang, Anhui Province, November 1848 93

8 Shanghai at the Lunar New Year, January 1849 107

9 Calcutta Botanic Garden, March 1849 115

10 Saharanpur, North-West Provinces, June 1849 125

11 Ningbo to Bohea, the Great Tea Road, May and June 1849 136

12 Bohea, July 1849 152

13 Pucheng, September 1849 171

14 Shanghai, Autumn 1849 182

15 Shanghai, February 1851 190

16 Himalayan Mountains, May 1851 206

17 Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield Lock, 1852 217

18 Tea for the Victorians 227

19 Fortune's Story 238

Acknowledgments 246

Notes 249

Index 253

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"With her probing inquiry and engaging prose, Sarah Rose paints a fresh and vivid account of life in rural 19th-century China and Fortune's fateful journey into it." —-The Washington Post

Editorial Reviews

"A wonderful combination of scholarship and storytelling"
-Guy Raz, NPR host All Things Considered.

"With her probing inquiry and engaging prose, Sarah Rose paints a fresh and vivid account of life in rural 19th-century China and Fortune's fateful journey into it...if ever there was a book to read in the company of a nice cuppa, this is it."
-Washington Post

"The plot for Sarah Rose's For All the Tea in China seems tailor-made for a Hollywood thriller...a story that should appeal to readers who want to be transported on a historic journey laced with suspense, science and adventure."
-Associated Press

"An enthusiastic tale of how the humble leaf became a global addiction."
-The Financial Times

"A delicious brew of information on the history of tea cultivation and consumption in the Western world...a remarkably riveting tale."
-Booklist, (starred review)

"In For All the Tea in China, the most eventful era of the tea plant gets the inspired treatment it deserves."
-Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Sarah Rose steeps us in the story of Robert Fortune."
-National Geographic Traveler

"Pause to reflect that the tea you are enjoying is totally hot - as in, stolen! Nabbed! Ripped off! Nothing more than the subject of international corporate espionage!"
-Chicago Sun Times

"In this lively account of the adventures (and misadventures) that lay behind Robert Fortune's bold acquisition of Chinese tea seedlings for transplanting in British India, Sarah Rose demonstrates in engaging detail how botany and empire- building went hand in hand."
-Jonathan Spence, author of The Search for Modern China

"As a lover of tea and a student of history, I loved this book. Sarah Rose conjures up the time and tales as British Legacy Teas are created before our eyes. We drink the delicious results of Robert Fortune's adventures every day."
-Michael Harney, author of The Harney & Sons Guide to Tea

"For All The Tea In China is a rousing Victorian adventure story chronicling the exploits of botanical thief Robert Fortune, who nearly single- handedly made the British tea industry possible in India. Sarah Rose has captured the thrill of discovery, the dramatic vistas in the Wuyi Mountains, and the near-disasters involved in Fortune's exploits. For tea-lovers, history buffs, or anyone who enjoys a ripping good read."
-Mark Pendergrast, author of Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World.

From the Publisher

With her probing inquiry and engaging prose, Sarah Rose paints a fresh and vivid account of life in rural 19th-century China and Fortune's fateful journey into it…if ever there was a book to read in the company of a nice cuppa, this is it.
—The Washington Post

Adrian Higgins

Sarah Rose gives a delightful presentation of her history of tea, outstanding in both the writing and narration. She starts with British botanist Robert Fortune, at sea and under fire by Chinese pirates. His advice to the captain saves the ship. Hired by the East India Company in 1848, Fortune returned to China on a mission to collect tea seeds, plants, and technology. The company planned to transplant the industry to India, where it could control the plants' production—and harvest huge profits. Rose's young American voice has a fresh, contemporary appeal, and she speaks the pervasive Chinese with comfort. The author, having preternatural familiarity with the book, has steeped an appetizing audio brew of Sino-British history, science, and introspective biography. J.A.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2010 - AudioFile