The most authoritative and entertaining history of tea ever published, written with verve to engage a wide readership.

For the first time in a popular history of tea, the ancient Chinese, Japanese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Persian and Arabic annals have been thoroughly consulted and carefully sifted. The resulting narrative takes the reader from the jungles of Southeast Asia to the splendour of the Tang and Song dynasties, from the tea ceremony aesthetics of medieval Japan to the fabled tea and horse trade of Central Asia, from the advent of Britain’s love affair with tea to the tea party that helped spark the American Revolution.

The True History of Tea celebrates the common heritage of a beverage we all love and plays a crucial part in dismantling that obsolete dictum: East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.

'A superior brew ... a real depth of knowledge with a deft stylistic and organizational touch ... both authoritative and entertaining' - Guardian
'Erudite and entertaining ... lots of great detail' - Harper's Bazaar

Victor H. Mair is Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and author of The Tarim Mummies, The Prehistory of the Silk Road and The Art of War.