The most authoritative and entertaining history of tea ever published, written with verve to engage a wide readership. For the first time in a popular history of tea, the ancient Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Persian and Arabic annals have been thoroughly consulted and carefully sifted. The resulting narrative takes the reader from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the splendour of the Tang and Song dynasties, from the tea ceremony aesthetics of medieval Japan to the ...