The Tale of Tea

What connects Pakistan's internet sensation Arshad Khan to Alexandre Dumas?What do the Opium Wars have in common with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and the Hell's Grannies from Monty Python with Doris Day?In one word: tea.In this extraordinary monograph, George van Driem introduces his readers to Yunnanese villagers, Chinese emperors, Japanese poets, Portuguese conquistadores, Dutch capitalists, English anti-saccharites, Parisian culinary innovators (and their Singaporean copycats), miscellaneous afficionados around the world, and even the insects in tea gardens.A history of tea, the book's central message seems to be, is a history of just about everything.And so, just when the reader risks getting lost in detours about obesity, the Fukushima power plant accident, the revelations of Edward Snowden, the unprecedented extinction of animal species, clandestine activism among homosexual men, a proposed new romanization of the Thai language, or the Kafkaesque tax forms that American citizens apparently face, the plot circles back to tea, warmly unfurling and pouring and dripping at every juncture of modern history.This imposing hardbound tome weighs in at a hefty 2.9 kg.(One could thus serve over 1200 cups from the book's weight in tea leaves.)It contains 12 chapters, 9 maps, and more than 400 pictures, many of which are in color.Its author, a linguist with a profound knowledge of the natural sciences, is best known for his work on the languages of the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian mainland.It is precisely from the eastern Himalayan corridor that the human consumption of tea originated.A one-page preface outlines the ubiquity of tea in our planet's past and present."The history of tea is the saga of globalization" (p.1), and one may indeed conclude that the history of globalization would be incomplete without lingering at considerable length over tea.The following 864 pages offer an exciting dive into the world of Camellia sinensis.Where, conventionally, a book's introduction would have been, The Tale of Tea commences without much ado with the primordial origins of the tea plant.The author wastes nary a page discussing his methodology, which can be summarized as follows: learn two dozen languages, read all relevant primary sources on the topic, visit every place of importance and then some more, and talk to a wide range of experts.The book has no conclusion or afterword.The Tale of Tea traces the history of tea from the mists of its mountainous homeland to dynastic China, Japan, Korea, and the Indian Ocean under Portuguese, Dutch, and British imperialism.It highlights the globalizing dynamics

Adventure · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Art history · China · George (robot · Media studies · Prehistory · Sociology · Culinary Culture and Tourism · History