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For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History
Sarah Rose, Author
Publisher: Viking Adult (March 18, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0670021520
From Kew Gardens to grimy Old Shanghai, and on to the remote Wu Yi Shan hills, Sarah Rose tells a true tale of pirates, rebels, subterfuge, espionage, and how one man triumphed over an exotic and corrupt Empire.... Robert Fortune was a Scottish gardener, botanist, plant hunter -- and industrial spy. In 1848, the East India Company engaged him to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China -- territory forbidden to foreigners -- to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea. For centuries, China had been the world's sole tea manufacturer. Britain purchased this fuel for its Empire by trading opium to the Chinese -- a poisonous relationship Britain fought two destructive wars to sustain.... The Chinese interior was off-limits and virtually unknown to the West, but that's where the finest tea was grown -- the richest oolongs, soochongs and pekoes. And the Emperor aimed to keep it that way.
About the Author
Sarah Rose is a writer living in New York City (she thinks that's the greatest sentence she ever wrote.) A Chicago native, she holds degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago. Sarah has worked as a journalist in Hong Kong, Miami and New York, and primarily covers food and travel. She is represented by the David Black Agency.
