How could a relaxing cup of tea become a symbol of revolution? This fascinating new book relates the thousands-year-old history of tea and its sometimes tumultuous trade. The first book on tea was published in China in 800 A.D. Since that time, people have been boiling and steeping the leaves of plants all over the world. Find out how different teas are grown, harvested, and sold and how the trade of tea has changed the world. Topics include
• tea's importance in ancient China and Japan
• the European tea craze of the 1600s and the beginnings of the European tea trade
• the practice of holding "afternoon tea"
• teahouses, gardens, Russian tea, tea dances and tea taxes
• tea and the American Revolution
• merchant companies and China tea clippers
Teacher's guide available.