A charming Victorian time capsule that captures tea at the moment it transformed from exotic luxury into national obsession. Arthur Reade traces the leaf's improbable journey from Chinese imperial courts to the parlors of Georgian England, where Samuel Pepys first recorded his delighted experiments with the strange new beverage. The narrative brims with the peculiar anxieties of early tea drinkers, women hiding their cups from disapproving husbands, physicians debating whether the drink promoted or prevented illness, and servants smuggling leaves from the East India Company's warehouses. Reade writes with the fond specificity of someone who considers tea not merely a drink but a civilizing force, cataloging the rituals, the equipment, and the social codes that grew around the teacup. For anyone who has ever wondered why Britain went mad for this bitter leaf, this book offers both history and atmosphere, a window into the moment when tea became the backbone of English life.
