The Tale of Tea
A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day
Published on 1. March 2019
Book
Hardback
924 pages
978-90-04-38625-9 (ISBN)
Description
The Tale of Tea is the saga of globalisation. Tea gave birth to paper money, the Opium Wars and Hong Kong, triggered the Anglo-Dutch wars and the American war of independence, shaped the economies and military history of Tang and Song China and moulded Chinese art and culture. Whilst black tea dominates the global market today, such tea is a recent invention. No tea plantations existed in the world's largest black tea producing countries, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka, when the Dutch and the English went to war about tea in the 17th century. This book replaces popular myths about tea with recondite knowledge on the hidden origins and detailed history of today's globalised beverage in its many modern guises.
Reviews / Votes
'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, including the wars, hierarchies, economical systems, and political structures effectuated by mankind's unquenchable thirst for the beverage. From an elaborate discussion on tea cultures worldwide (including those of Africa, South America, and the Pacific), the book moves to cuisines influenced by tea, the chemistry behind it, and, finally, the interrelated issues of modern-day tea cultivation and environmental sustainability. The Tale of Tea is mostly chronological, but occasionally hops between time periods when it is thematically justified.(...) The book equips beginners and experts alike with the knowledge to talk about tea confidently.(...) It is nothing short of a must-read for anyone genuinely interested in tea. Its value for tea enthusiasts outside the academic world, is almost self-evident. I have no doubt it will be warmly received by tea companies, museums, and online discussion groups.' - Tom Hoogervorst, KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden, The Netherlands, in: BKI,176: 2-3 (2020)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 267 mm
Width: 213 mm
Thickness: 55 mm
Weight
2868 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-38625-9 (9789004386259)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
George L. van Driem
The Tale of Tea
A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day
Book
12/2020
Brill
€107.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
George van Driem directs the Linguistics Institute at the University of Bern, where he occupies the Chair of Historical Linguistics. He has written grammars of Limbu, Dzongkha, Bumthang and Dumi and authored the two-volume ethnolinguistic handbook Languages of the Himalayas (Brill, 2001).
Content
Preface
1 The Primordial Origins of Tea
?A Brief Ethnolinguistic Preamble
?Varieties of Tea Tree and Some Close Relatives
?The Original Tea Emerges from the Mists of Time
?An Ancient Trans-Himalayan Root Denoting Tea
?An Ancient Austroasiatic Root Denoting Tea
?Fermented Eatable Tea Becomes Fermented Drinkable Tea
?Old and New Tea Etyma in the Original Tea Homeland
2 Tea Spreads to China
?Shrouded behind the Veil of Writing
?The Chinese Characters tu ? and cha ?
?From the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty
?Tea Becomes Fashionable in the Tang
?A Tea Sage Is Discovered under a Stone Bridge
?The Tea Sage Becomes a Man
?Lu Y?'s Tea Treatise and His Old Age
?Tea and the Water with Which It Is Made
?The Blossoming of Tea Culture and Porcelain
?Tibet Takes to Tea in the Tang
?Tea Is Taxed by the Tang
?The Song under Siege
?The Sophistication of the Song
?Chinese Tea Culture Blossoms Anew in the Ming
?A ilha formosa
?The Manchu and the Colours of the Chinese Rainbow
?Chinese Green Teas
?White Teas and Albino Cultivars
?Chinese Yellow Teas
?Blue Teas, Swarthy Dragon and Rock Teas
?Chinese Red Teas
?Chinese Fermented or Dark Teas
?Scented Teas, Herbal Infusions, Punch and Cocktails
3 Tea Arrives in Japan and Korea
?Tea Comes to the Land of the Rising Sun
?Tea Comes to Japan yet Again
?Buddhist Monastery Tea Rituals
?Tea Tasting Competitions and Bawdy Bazaars
?Noami Takes Tea from the Tea Pavilion into a Domestic Setting
?An Oasis of Calm in a Troubled Time
?Joo Picks up Where Juko Left Off
?Sen no Rikyu
?Tea Schools Arising through the Seven Disciples
?Tea Schools through Family Descent
?The Tea Ceremony Fossilises
?The Manufacture of matcha and tencha
?Japanese Parched Green Tea or kamairi cha
?Sencha, shincha and bancha
?Kabusecha, Gyokuro and the Flavour Umami
?Miscellaneous Other Types of Japanese Tea
?Japanese Tea Culture Travels Abroad
?Japanese Tea Cultivars and Tea Production
?Innovations and Nostalgic Retentions in Japanese Tea
?A Non-Japanese Drink with a Japanese Name
?Tea Reaches the Korean Peninsula
?The Renaissance of Korean Tea
4 East Meets West: the Intrepid Portuguese
?Getting into Hot Water
?Tea by way of the Silk Route
?Setting Sail for Cipangu
?A Surprise Welcome
?Silk and Silver Rather Than Tea
?Uma chavena de cha
?The Tea Ceremony, Oolong Tea and Saying Mass
?More Reports of the Tea Ceremony
?Ricci and Rodrigues
?Jewels of the East
5 Dutch Capitalism and the Globalisation of Tea
?A Dutchman in Goa and a Landlubber in Bordeaux
?The Birth of Capitalism
?Amor vincit omnia
?The Japanese Word Is Replaced by the Hokkien Word
?Tea Comes into Vogue in the Low Countries
?A Dutch Doctor Prescribes Tea and a Portuguese Jesuit Admires Eastern Mores
?A More Famous Dutch Physician Prescribes Tea and Tea at the Siamese Court
?A Third Dutch Doctor Extols the Virtues of Tea
?A Milanese Jesuit in Cochin China
?A French Jesuit Binges on Tea in Tonkin
?An Italian Jesuit from Hangzhou and a French Priest from Siam
?Taking Tea a Hundred Times a Day
?A Dutch Preacher in Ceylon and the East Indies
?Tea and the Travels of Tavernier
?The Baroque Dutch Spelling of a Hokkien Word
?A Persian Interlude
6 The English Take to Tea: Wars in Europe
?Tea as a Plant Species
?The English Take to Tea
?Yet Another Influential Dutch Tea Doctor
?The First Anglo-Dutch War
?The Second Anglo-Dutch War
?The Third Anglo-Dutch War
?The Catherine Myth
?France, French Tea and Tea with Milk
?On Taking Sugar in One's Tea
?The New Tradition of English Afternoon Tea
?Government Greed and the Changing English Taste for Tea
?Early Types of Tea Imported to Europe
?Tea to the Barbary Coast
7 Interlude: Coffee and Chocolate
?Vicissitudes of Fortune and Fashion
?The First Tidings of Coffee Reach Europe
?The Coffee Homeland in the Kingdom of Caffa
?Coffee Is Adopted in Arabia and Then in Turkey
?Tidings of Coffee Are Sent to Italy
?Antique Oral Tradition vs. Modern Myth
?Islamic Apologetics on behalf of Coffee
?The English First Take to Coffee and Then the Dutch
?The Wine of the Sufis Becomes a Global Commodity
?Coffee Comes to Vienna, Whilst Fashions Change in the West
?Good to the Last Dropping
?Europeans Discover the Drink of the Aztecs and the Mayans
?Cacao Comes to Europe and Asia
?Modern Cocoa and Chocolate Are Invented
8 Taxes vs. Freedom from Oppression
?The Rise of Canton and the Downturn in the Dutch Tea Trade
?English Ascendancy in the Tea Trade
?Silver for Tea
?Gender, Tea Gardens and Tea Dances
?Tea and Taxes
?Extraterritorial Taxation and the Boston Tea Party
?Ideological Legacy of the Boston Tea Party
?A Threepence on a Pound of Tea and International Law
?Scrambling for the Exits as a Re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party
?The Surveillance State and the Tea Party
?The Illusion of Democratic Choice
?Tea Looks for a New Home and Chaos Erupts in Europe
9 Tea transformed: Wars in Asia
?Opium for Tea
?The Treaty of Paris and the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
?The Napoleonic Threat Prompts Strategic Realignments in the East
?More Reshuffling in the East
?The Path to War
?The First Opium War
?Tea Plantations in the Dutch East Indies
?Botanical Confusion
?Tea Plantations in British India
?Meanwhile in Sikkim, the Duars and Nepal
?Opium Clippers and Tea
?British Espionage in the Middle Kingdom
?The Great Paradigm Shift in Global Tea Consumption
?The Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion
?The Opium Wars and India
?Meanwhile in Russia
?Orthodox Tea and the Invention of Brown Tea
?Coffee Serendipitously Gives Way to Tea
?Sir Thomas Lipton
?Iced Tea, Tea Bags and Orwellian Tea
?Germany and Denmark
10 Tea Terroir and Tea Cuisine
?Terroir, Microbiome and Epigenetic Effects
?Madagascar, the Mascarenes and the Seychelles
?The Azores and Brazil
?French Tea Cuisine and Other New Trends
?Thailand and Laos
?Tea Comes to the Malay Peninsula
?Mozambique, Homeland of Yasuke
?A Colony on the Cape Becomes South Africa
?The Dutch East Indies Become Indonesia
?From French Indochina to Vietnam
?Georgia and the Russian Empire
?Iran and the Persian Gulf
?The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Azeri Tea
?Turkey Converts from Coffee to Tea
?Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia
?From a Colony under Wilhelm ii to Tanzania
?The East Africa Protectorate Becomes Kenya
?From British Protectorate to Uganda
?Cameroun, Nigeria, Rwanda and Burundi
?Across the Continent of South America
?Tea in South Carolina
?Late Bloomers of the Pacific
?From Kew Gardens to Cornwall
?Swiss Tea in the Ticino
?Tea in the Dragon Kingdom
?Bohemia and Moravia Take to Tea
?Dutch Tea in the Age of Vertical Farming
11 Tea Chemistry and Fanciful Concoctions
?Tea Science or Tsiology
?Caffeine
?From Teaism to Theanine
?Vitamin P
?Catechins and Tannins
?Theaflavins and Thearubigins
?Tea and Cancer
?Tea, Obesity and Diabetes
?Tea, Cardiac Health, Allergies and Immunity
?Tea and Cognition
?Tea, the Kidneys and the Liver
?Bottled Tea Drinks, Bubble Tea and Other New Trends
?Factors Affecting Fragrance
12 Tending the Tea Garden
?Sustainable Tea Cultivation
?Assailants of the Tea Plant
?Physical Tea Pest Control
?In Pursuit of Environmentally Friendly Biological Warfare
?Tea Tree Diseases and Some Therapies
?Consumer Protection, Labyrinths of Red Tape and Global Dangers
Index
1 The Primordial Origins of Tea
?A Brief Ethnolinguistic Preamble
?Varieties of Tea Tree and Some Close Relatives
?The Original Tea Emerges from the Mists of Time
?An Ancient Trans-Himalayan Root Denoting Tea
?An Ancient Austroasiatic Root Denoting Tea
?Fermented Eatable Tea Becomes Fermented Drinkable Tea
?Old and New Tea Etyma in the Original Tea Homeland
2 Tea Spreads to China
?Shrouded behind the Veil of Writing
?The Chinese Characters tu ? and cha ?
?From the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty
?Tea Becomes Fashionable in the Tang
?A Tea Sage Is Discovered under a Stone Bridge
?The Tea Sage Becomes a Man
?Lu Y?'s Tea Treatise and His Old Age
?Tea and the Water with Which It Is Made
?The Blossoming of Tea Culture and Porcelain
?Tibet Takes to Tea in the Tang
?Tea Is Taxed by the Tang
?The Song under Siege
?The Sophistication of the Song
?Chinese Tea Culture Blossoms Anew in the Ming
?A ilha formosa
?The Manchu and the Colours of the Chinese Rainbow
?Chinese Green Teas
?White Teas and Albino Cultivars
?Chinese Yellow Teas
?Blue Teas, Swarthy Dragon and Rock Teas
?Chinese Red Teas
?Chinese Fermented or Dark Teas
?Scented Teas, Herbal Infusions, Punch and Cocktails
3 Tea Arrives in Japan and Korea
?Tea Comes to the Land of the Rising Sun
?Tea Comes to Japan yet Again
?Buddhist Monastery Tea Rituals
?Tea Tasting Competitions and Bawdy Bazaars
?Noami Takes Tea from the Tea Pavilion into a Domestic Setting
?An Oasis of Calm in a Troubled Time
?Joo Picks up Where Juko Left Off
?Sen no Rikyu
?Tea Schools Arising through the Seven Disciples
?Tea Schools through Family Descent
?The Tea Ceremony Fossilises
?The Manufacture of matcha and tencha
?Japanese Parched Green Tea or kamairi cha
?Sencha, shincha and bancha
?Kabusecha, Gyokuro and the Flavour Umami
?Miscellaneous Other Types of Japanese Tea
?Japanese Tea Culture Travels Abroad
?Japanese Tea Cultivars and Tea Production
?Innovations and Nostalgic Retentions in Japanese Tea
?A Non-Japanese Drink with a Japanese Name
?Tea Reaches the Korean Peninsula
?The Renaissance of Korean Tea
4 East Meets West: the Intrepid Portuguese
?Getting into Hot Water
?Tea by way of the Silk Route
?Setting Sail for Cipangu
?A Surprise Welcome
?Silk and Silver Rather Than Tea
?Uma chavena de cha
?The Tea Ceremony, Oolong Tea and Saying Mass
?More Reports of the Tea Ceremony
?Ricci and Rodrigues
?Jewels of the East
5 Dutch Capitalism and the Globalisation of Tea
?A Dutchman in Goa and a Landlubber in Bordeaux
?The Birth of Capitalism
?Amor vincit omnia
?The Japanese Word Is Replaced by the Hokkien Word
?Tea Comes into Vogue in the Low Countries
?A Dutch Doctor Prescribes Tea and a Portuguese Jesuit Admires Eastern Mores
?A More Famous Dutch Physician Prescribes Tea and Tea at the Siamese Court
?A Third Dutch Doctor Extols the Virtues of Tea
?A Milanese Jesuit in Cochin China
?A French Jesuit Binges on Tea in Tonkin
?An Italian Jesuit from Hangzhou and a French Priest from Siam
?Taking Tea a Hundred Times a Day
?A Dutch Preacher in Ceylon and the East Indies
?Tea and the Travels of Tavernier
?The Baroque Dutch Spelling of a Hokkien Word
?A Persian Interlude
6 The English Take to Tea: Wars in Europe
?Tea as a Plant Species
?The English Take to Tea
?Yet Another Influential Dutch Tea Doctor
?The First Anglo-Dutch War
?The Second Anglo-Dutch War
?The Third Anglo-Dutch War
?The Catherine Myth
?France, French Tea and Tea with Milk
?On Taking Sugar in One's Tea
?The New Tradition of English Afternoon Tea
?Government Greed and the Changing English Taste for Tea
?Early Types of Tea Imported to Europe
?Tea to the Barbary Coast
7 Interlude: Coffee and Chocolate
?Vicissitudes of Fortune and Fashion
?The First Tidings of Coffee Reach Europe
?The Coffee Homeland in the Kingdom of Caffa
?Coffee Is Adopted in Arabia and Then in Turkey
?Tidings of Coffee Are Sent to Italy
?Antique Oral Tradition vs. Modern Myth
?Islamic Apologetics on behalf of Coffee
?The English First Take to Coffee and Then the Dutch
?The Wine of the Sufis Becomes a Global Commodity
?Coffee Comes to Vienna, Whilst Fashions Change in the West
?Good to the Last Dropping
?Europeans Discover the Drink of the Aztecs and the Mayans
?Cacao Comes to Europe and Asia
?Modern Cocoa and Chocolate Are Invented
8 Taxes vs. Freedom from Oppression
?The Rise of Canton and the Downturn in the Dutch Tea Trade
?English Ascendancy in the Tea Trade
?Silver for Tea
?Gender, Tea Gardens and Tea Dances
?Tea and Taxes
?Extraterritorial Taxation and the Boston Tea Party
?Ideological Legacy of the Boston Tea Party
?A Threepence on a Pound of Tea and International Law
?Scrambling for the Exits as a Re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party
?The Surveillance State and the Tea Party
?The Illusion of Democratic Choice
?Tea Looks for a New Home and Chaos Erupts in Europe
9 Tea transformed: Wars in Asia
?Opium for Tea
?The Treaty of Paris and the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
?The Napoleonic Threat Prompts Strategic Realignments in the East
?More Reshuffling in the East
?The Path to War
?The First Opium War
?Tea Plantations in the Dutch East Indies
?Botanical Confusion
?Tea Plantations in British India
?Meanwhile in Sikkim, the Duars and Nepal
?Opium Clippers and Tea
?British Espionage in the Middle Kingdom
?The Great Paradigm Shift in Global Tea Consumption
?The Second Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion
?The Opium Wars and India
?Meanwhile in Russia
?Orthodox Tea and the Invention of Brown Tea
?Coffee Serendipitously Gives Way to Tea
?Sir Thomas Lipton
?Iced Tea, Tea Bags and Orwellian Tea
?Germany and Denmark
10 Tea Terroir and Tea Cuisine
?Terroir, Microbiome and Epigenetic Effects
?Madagascar, the Mascarenes and the Seychelles
?The Azores and Brazil
?French Tea Cuisine and Other New Trends
?Thailand and Laos
?Tea Comes to the Malay Peninsula
?Mozambique, Homeland of Yasuke
?A Colony on the Cape Becomes South Africa
?The Dutch East Indies Become Indonesia
?From French Indochina to Vietnam
?Georgia and the Russian Empire
?Iran and the Persian Gulf
?The Rise and Fall and Rise and Fall of Azeri Tea
?Turkey Converts from Coffee to Tea
?Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia
?From a Colony under Wilhelm ii to Tanzania
?The East Africa Protectorate Becomes Kenya
?From British Protectorate to Uganda
?Cameroun, Nigeria, Rwanda and Burundi
?Across the Continent of South America
?Tea in South Carolina
?Late Bloomers of the Pacific
?From Kew Gardens to Cornwall
?Swiss Tea in the Ticino
?Tea in the Dragon Kingdom
?Bohemia and Moravia Take to Tea
?Dutch Tea in the Age of Vertical Farming
11 Tea Chemistry and Fanciful Concoctions
?Tea Science or Tsiology
?Caffeine
?From Teaism to Theanine
?Vitamin P
?Catechins and Tannins
?Theaflavins and Thearubigins
?Tea and Cancer
?Tea, Obesity and Diabetes
?Tea, Cardiac Health, Allergies and Immunity
?Tea and Cognition
?Tea, the Kidneys and the Liver
?Bottled Tea Drinks, Bubble Tea and Other New Trends
?Factors Affecting Fragrance
12 Tending the Tea Garden
?Sustainable Tea Cultivation
?Assailants of the Tea Plant
?Physical Tea Pest Control
?In Pursuit of Environmentally Friendly Biological Warfare
?Tea Tree Diseases and Some Therapies
?Consumer Protection, Labyrinths of Red Tape and Global Dangers
Index