A Brief History of Tea

I do not drink tea; I don't like the taste of it and never have. Nevertheless, I found A Brief History of Tea: The Extraordinary Story of the World's Favourite Drink, by Roy Moxham, to be a vastly entertaining and informative book. In it, Moxham traces the origins of tea from ancient China through to modern India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and various nations of Africa. Moxham himself ran a tea plantation in the early 1960s, in what was then called Nyasaland and is now known as Malawi, and he begins and ends his book with some personal reminiscences of that period of his life. The story is, of course, full of imperialism, appalling working and living conditions, near-slavery and revolutions; there is also perhaps more than I, a show more non-believer, needed to know about the production of different types of tea and how advances in agricultural technology helped to increase yield exponentially. On the other hand, I now know why my mother prefers Typhoo Tea over all others - she is an Englishwoman and lived much of her early life around Birmingham, the home of that British company. Good to know! show less

This is an excellent book. It is well-written - compelling, not dry. It is, by its nature, a broad view of the subject but it is deep enough that the reader isn't left feeling that any area has been too superficially dealt with. It definitely highlights areas for further reading but is satisfying in and of itself as a treatment of the history of the tea industry and how it has touched our lives.

Good overview of the history of tea. Excellent introduction for those unfamiliar.