Liquid jade

"Traveling from East to West over thousands of years, tea has played a variety of roles on the world scene--in medicine, politics, the arts, culture, and religion. Behind this most serene of beverages, idolized by poets and revered in spiritual practices, lie stories of treachery, violence, smuggling, drug trade, international espionage, slavery, and revolution. This book explores tea in all its social and cultural aspects. Entertaining yet informative and extensively researched, connecting past and present and spanning five thousand years, this multilayered account of tea will enhance the…