For thousands of years, tea has played a significant role in world history, not only as a beverage but also in medicine, politics, art, culture, and religion, traveling between East and West.
Tea has been symbolized by poets, healed the soul, and influenced betrayal, violence, smuggling, opium, international espionage, slavery, and revolution.
In 2004, global tea production reached 3.2 million tons, three times the level of 40 years earlier.
This means that 3.8 billion cups of tea are drunk every day on Earth.
Tea, which accounts for more than 60% of the global beverage market, is one of the most important beverages for modern people, along with coffee.


In this sense, examining the history of tea means examining not only modern history but also world history.
This book explores the social and cultural aspects of tea through a wealth of historical sources, and offers a fascinating portrayal of the Western fascination with tea and the Eastern history of tea.

People tend to gather in groups, and they flock to coffee houses based on their interests, political inclinations, literary predilections, or the type of business they are involved in.
For example, the poet John Dryden visited Will's, a long distance from his home, for thirty years.
Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope frequented Button's, a new literary teahouse that opened after Dryden's death.
The Grecian was a teahouse for scientists such as Isaac Newton and Edmund Halley.
At Jonathan's, financiers gathered, and at St. James's.
In James, politicians gathered.
Some coffee houses became the starting point for businesses that continue to this day.
Lloyd's Insurance of London started out by posting the latest shipping news and shipping information on the walls of coffee houses.
And the London Stock Exchange began in Jonathan's coffee house.
The first modern magazine, Tatler's, began as a weekend publication, gathering the hottest gossip from all the coffeehouses.

--- p.113

What did people eat for breakfast in Britain before tea existed?
A wealthy person's breakfast might have included lamb or beef soup, bread and biscuits, and ale, beer, or wine.
Some people even added seafood to this menu.
Samuel Pepys records the breakfast he served his guests on New Year's Day as "a barrel of oysters, a neat ox tongue, anchovies, various wines and Northtown ales."
A merchant might have had herring, rye bread and ale, a shoemaker might have had rye bread and beer, and a boy might have had porridge, bread, butter and beer before going to school.
If there was one thing that everyone always had, it was alcohol.

The old, common story that the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish were born drinkers does not fully explain why alcohol was on every family's breakfast table.
It was more of a consequence than a reason.
It may sound strange, but alcohol was supposed to be good for your health.
At that time, the dangerous drink was not beer, but water!
--- p.149

Even leaving aside historical oblivion and social neglect, the working conditions and living standards of the average tea worker are surprisingly poor.
The average daily wage for tea workers ranges from 60 cents to $1.50, and during the off-season they receive no wage at all.
If a worker is sick or unable to work, he or she does not receive daily wages, and there is no pay on Sundays.
Chronic back pain from carrying heavy tea baskets, exposure to chemical pesticides, and the danger of snakes threaten the life of tea pickers.
Also, in the tea gardens during the rainy season when the temperature is high and humidity is high, leeches always harass the workers.
The workers' families live in small, stuffy, unsanitary and dilapidated houses.
Electricity and running water are almost luxuries, and medical facilities are short on staff, equipment, and medicine.
Infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria are common, and other diseases such as gastrointestinal diseases and dysentery are rampant due to polluted water sources, as are anemia and malnutrition.
--- p.341

Fair Trade premium proceeds are reflected in the final retail price of Fair Trade tea.
This is why we should pay a little more for fair trade tea.
How much does "a little" mean? The Fair Trade premium and registration fees combined amount to about 72 cents per pound of tea.
One pound of tea leaves can make 200 cups of tea.
That means you can enjoy a cup of tea made with Fair Trade tea for just one-third of a cent more. For Fair Trade tea, the premium is even lower, at just about one-fifth of a cent.
People in big cities like Oslo, Paris, Chicago or Frankfurt who buy fair trade tea won't even pick up these small coins on the street.
A third of a cent is a small amount of money that is difficult to even comprehend.
But in Africa, India and Sri Lanka, where fair trade tea suppliers live, it has a much higher value.

--- p.348~349