"Traveling from East to West over thousands of years, tea has played a variety of roles on the world scene--in medicine, politics, the arts, culture, and religion. Behind this most serene of beverages, idolized by poets and revered in spiritual practices, lie stories of treachery, violence, smuggling, drug trade, international espionage, slavery, and revolution. This book explores tea in all its social and cultural aspects. Entertaining yet informative and extensively researched, connecting past and present and spanning five thousand years, this multilayered account of tea will enhance the experience of a steaming "cuppa" for tea lovers the world over.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress

Includes information on tea advertisements, North America, Assam tea, black tea, caffeine, Chʾ-ching (The Classic of Tea), China, Darjeeling tea, Chinese dynasties, English East India Company, Great Britian, green tea, Holland, India, Japan, medicinal/health uses, opium, organic agriculture, porcelain, Portugal, tea preparation, tea production, smuggling, Taoism, tea taxation, tea ceremonies, tea masters, tea tasting, tea trade, water, women, Zen Buddhism, etc.