For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History Paperback – February 22, 2011

For a fine-tea geek like myself, this book was enthralling. But even if that magic leaf is NOT your cup of tea, learning about the history of this rare commodity and its power in world economies is worth the read. Ms. Rose brings the career of Robert Fortune to life and illuminates the monopolistic power of the famous East India Company, tool of Britain's empire-building strategy. Rose reports history yet tells a story of living people set against a backdrop of culture clashes, espionage, political gamesmanship, and scientific discovery. Whether you're into tea, botany, sociology, history or just love a good page-turner, this book is for you. We learn that Fortune, a prominent British botanist, led the largest theft of intellectual property known to man: tea growing and processing secrets held closely by the Chinese. The social justice component is also an important theme running throughout the book. We learn of the intensive labor required to produce the teas that so captivated the upper classes of the time (and still captivate average people like myself). I even learned that American history books once again whitewashed the truth: those Chinese railroad laborers of the mid-1800s were actually victims of human trafficking; indentured servants at best, outright slave labor at worst. Despite all these harsh truths, Rose keeps the narrative both factual and interesting without crossing over into preaching. You cannot help but root for Fortune through all his failures and successes. The book is eye-opening and completely engrossing.

The story is fascinating, I really enjoyed it, and while I'm no historian on the topic, it certainly seemed that the author did her homework. The author reads this audiobook, which is the reason it gets four stars instead of five. It was not one of the better reading jobs I've listened to over the years (but by no means bad); this is one of those books that could have benefited from a professional...like some of the actors that have read other books. Her voice trails off in some places, and she lacks the voice modulation to express the drama and excitement of the material. The packaging indicates that it won an "Earphones Award" from AudioFile, for "Exceptional Audio Performance", but I have to disagree on that one. It's still certainly worth purchasing, but I feel it necessary to warn listeners that this could have been better had a professional read the book instead. Book is worth five stars; the reading, 4 stars.

I saw the title of the book and I thought it was an interesting title and I wanted to know where that phrase came from. I read the reviews and I thought this would be a good adventure story.This book surprised me in many ways. The first was to learn that the thing that made India the Jewel of the British empire was that they produced tons of opium. So I guess the British were the first drug lords and that is how everyone gets their start from corruption.It was hard for me to understand at first that no one noticed that Robert Fortune was not Chinese but British. I guess when everyone in the country is not allowed to go outside the country then you did not know that people look different in different parts of the world.The way they moved the plants from one place to another made sense to me once I understood how it worked. I can see why he had several problems in the transportation of the plants and you really can see the predjudices that occurred along the way. I am trying not to give too much of it away.The book was well written and interesting throughout and describes in detail the different countries that you travel in and describes the period that the story is in. I think this book would be good for anyone who is interested in history of that period and the history of tea and how it evolved.

This is a good example of why history is fun. Sarah Rose has focussed on one small event with a few participants nearly two centuries ago and deftly explained why and how it changed the subsequent course of events for China, India, and the rest of the world.In the 1840s the British Empire and the British East India Company were rising powers, while China was in the first stages of a century long decline. Although the Chinese were rapidly weakening, they did still maintain control over tea production. Tea was a drink which had become increasingly important to Europeans, especially the British, and a small group of opportunistic and amoralofficials in the East India Company engaged in some skulldeggery and outright theft to obtain tea plants which could then be cultivated in Britain's "jewel in the crown," India.The plot of this story reads like a detective or spy novel, but its even more fascinating because it really happened. The loss of China's tea monopoly contributed to British aggrandizement and Asian decline. This was part of the process by which European imperialists gained hegemony over large parts of the world, leading to the growth of nationalist and anti-colonial movements with which we still deal today.Rose writes vividly and entertainingly, with an eye for a good anecdote. I look forward to seeing more work from her pen.