A Brief History of Tea

by Roy Moxham

From the plantation to the breakfast table—the stimulating history of the world's obsession with tea from its first discovery in China to the present day. Moxham first became fascinated by the history of tea when he applied for a job to manage a plantation in Nyasaland, Africa. His book is a historical journey which includes all levels of society from the royal family to plantation slaves, revolution, and the afternoon ritual. The story he uncovered reveals a fascinating, and occasionally brutal, insight into the history of the British Empire.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Tea, Food, Economics, Africa, Asia

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 2009

About the author

Roy Moxham (born 1939) is a British writer, the author of historical books highlighting little-known historical facts.
Moxham was born in Evesham, Worcestershire on 13 September 1939 and went to Prince Henry's Grammar School there. In 1961 he went to Nyasaland (now Malawi) to manage a tea plantation. In 1973 he returned to Britain and established a small gallery in Covent Garden to sell African art, travelling widely in Africa. In 1978 he went to Camberwell College of Art and Crafts, where he qualified as a book and archive conservator. Subsequently, he was a conservator at Canterbury Cathedral Archives and then became Senior Conservator at the Senate House Library of the University of London, from which he retired in 2005. He lives in London, travels widely in south and south-east Asia and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Moxham's first book was The Freelander, a novel based on the exploits of a group of idealists trying to establish a commune on Mount Kenya in the 1890s. His best-known book is The Great Hedge of India. This book is part-travelogue, part-historical treatise on the author's quest to find a 1500-mile long customs hedge built by the British in India to prevent smuggling of salt and sugar. His next book, Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire focuses on the effect of British tea addiction on British policies in Asia and Africa, and includes the author's own experience as a tea plantation manager in Africa. An updated edition " A Brief History of Tea" came out in 2009. In 2010 he published a memoir, "Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me" about his friendship with Phoolan Devi, the Indian bandit turned politician. In 2014 he published as an e-book a novel, "The East India Company Wife", based on the real life of Catherine Cooke, a thirteen-year-old English girl who went to India with her parents in 1709. In November 2016 The Theft of India: The European Conquests of India 1498 – 1765 was published.

Bibliography:

The Theft of India: The European conquests of India 1498 – 1765 (HarperCollins India, New Delhi: November 2016)
The East India Company Wife (e-book: 2014)
Outlaw: India's Bandit Queen and Me (Rider, London: 2010)
A Brief History of Tea (Robinson: 2009)
Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire (Constable, London: 2003)
The Great Hedge of India (Constable, London: 2001)
The Freelander (Team, Nairobi: 1990)

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

* Updated* Adds Review To Rating 4.2⭐
The book blends Roy Moxham's memoir of running a tea plantation in Africa during the waning days of the British Empire, with the story of tea itself. The two compliment each other very well. Even the history portion concerns itself more with the human aspects of tea - the people who grew it and the people who drank it and made it popular, rather than economics or geopolitics ( though these have their place). Moxham also goes into detail of the human cost of producing tea, both in terms of the back breaking labour in the colonial era but also the brutality with which imperialist powers protected their interests ( tea was a component of the infamous Opium Wars). Although he worked as a manager of a plantation he had no illusions about the blessings of capitalism on the local population or about the racism of the European elite.
The book's not all grim, however. There are plenty of engaging anecdotes about the ceremony and social aspects of tea, from the courts of Chinese Emperors to English "tea gardens" of the Eighteenth Century.
Moxham's prose is plain and easy to follow. The subject is surprisingly engaging with elements of high politics and low skullduggery. I won't say it's steeped in history because that would be another bad pun and I've promised to turn over a new leaf. If you have any interest in the subject at all, I recommend this book.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gotta say, this book destroyed any romantic ideas I had about tea. I'll never be able to watch a British period drama where the characters are drinking tea without thinking of the hundreds of thousands of Indian workers who died on British tea plantations. ~Yay British Empire~

In general this book is very dry and factual, which is why it took me a long time to finish. The part I found most interesting was the description of the author's time working as a manager of a tea plantation in the former Nyasaland (Malawi). I was disappointed when the book ended because I wanted to know what happened next!

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find the history of commodities to be endlessly fascinating, and I heartily enjoyed this concise and readable account of tea.

[Dave Courtney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for anyone interested in the history of tea. The caption on the back suggests the story as a "dark history". The ensuing pages could very well lead you to rethink any sentimental appreciations of this popular drink (as we know it today).

One of the more fascinating elements of this brief history, which comes from author Roy Moxham's own journey in to Africa to participate in a plantation as a worker, is the sheer number of familiar crossroads with the formation of empires and institutions, modern trends and conveniences that we likely never give a second thought. For example, I had no idea that the competition for tea had direct implications on the invention and rise of the modern day supermarket, nor that the (American) invention of the tea bag had a large role in changing the nature of tea and tea consumption over night (essentially moving it from an organic experience based on whole leaves and fresh product to a mass marketed production focused on quantity rather than quality... although interest in quality would eventually resurface).

I found it equally interesting to read about the shift in categorization from medicine to beverage. Perhaps more illuminating though is to read about the murky trade relationship between the British (and colonization) and the East. It makes me consider the British relationship with tea (which is nearly synonymous), which absorbed and conquered this new drink with an initial caution and skepticism that is nearly comical to modern ears if it wasn't so muddied by a very unfortunate piece of our global history. The consumption of tea (and) in particular black tea) in England is an oddity in that they do not grow it (it is nearly all traded/imported), they do not hold a related history in terms of any such close proximity to a native origin, and in many ways (and shapes and forms) it circumvented their own historical preference for alcohol. Indeed, some of the writing of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shows just how comic this transition in custom really was. Some of the back and forth sentiments regarding its benefits and dangers, the popular mythology and stigma surrounding the appropriateness as a male drink (it started for the British as a drink associated with the coffeehouses which were populated mainly by men looking for an alcoholic drink, coffee, and then eventually a cup of tea) is as perplexing to the modern ear as it is somewhat familiar at the same time. It is curious to think that even today we find sentiments regarding tea as a "girls" drink, and we even find differences (sometimes in polarizing ways) regarding the drink as a beverage (in the mass market) or medicine (often targeted in smaller health food stores). Heck, even after all this time we still have debates surrounding the health benefits of different kinds of tea versus questions regarding the dangers of caffeinated content. Some things never truly change.

The consumption of tea for the British also, as mentioned above, comes with a tough history regarding the exploitation of workers, land, peoples and markets. The opium trade and the manipulation of lands (which would include Ceylon, which would eventually become Sri Lanka) for personal benefit often exploited workers for the benefit of exportation and monopolization, and in the case of the opium trade wreaked havoc and brought permanent damage to a whole nation. This remains as a stark reminder of our own consumption habits, which for so many products and produce/food/drink remains incredibly far removed from the trade and processes that allow us access to that which is not native to our own area. Tea is hardly alone in telling this story. However, it remains a big part of this story.

Along with the history of development and process comes an inside look at the tea itself. It explains the differences between types of teas (which regarding the well known Black and Green teas comes down to the amount of time the leaf is given to ferment and the amount of heat/burning the leaf is submitted to). It sheds light on the history of tea (in its traditional Eastern context) in terms of use as medicine, tea in herbal context, and the predominance of Black and Green leaves according to area (There were certain stigmas in certain areas regarding the forms of teas and their benefits or social acceptance, and it curious to note that it is the British involvement that made the consumption of Black Tea so popularized. In our modern day it is likewise the emergence of China that has been giving Green Tea its time in the spotlight).

It is a decent compliment to speak of a book as enlightening, which this history certainly was. There is a portion that is given to some of the pioneers in tea consumption and marketing, and one such name that comes up is Lipton. Lipton remains today as a fitting symbol of the ebb and flow of how the world of marketing and consumption works in a increasing global trade. It is a company that succumbed on a localized level to its own insistence (and stubborness) to remain self owned, self reliant and privatized, and yet it is a brand in which assimilation in to larger corporations retained the foresight of branding the name around the globe with major success. As the book notes, Lipton remains one of the most recognizable brands of tea everywhere today except in its place of origins. Of course the brand has simply been retained as an example of professional and successful marketing, the result of using a name that conjures thoughts of a small, quaint tea shop to move the product of huge factories en masse.

As a last note, the book is also enlightening regarding the modern attention given to some of the historical errors regarding manipulation and exploitation of workers. It addresses the idea of fair trade as being well intentioned, but in the bigger picture not necessarily resulting in successful solutions. We tend to categorize some of our big mistakes on a historical level in certain black and white terms (that label big business as the enemy and small private owners as the ones who need protection). There is truth to some of this, but the bigger truth is that there is a much bigger picture that isn't always so neatly categorized in to our popular mantras of social consciousness. There is an interconnectedness to global trade that requires attention to a fine balance, let alone particular issues that require the unique attention of each smaller community. The answer is almost never singular in terms of a global affect or concern. And in some cases it is incredibly difficult to even discuss what the right answer must be regarding equal treatment and benefit of worker/owner/business/government/corporation relationship. As the book suggests, the main problem (in the case of tea) is overproduction. This is the result of global competition in which inevitably most people (on a global level) will tend to pay the least amount of money for a product that is in high demand, and where governments/corporations/private businesses will tend towards deals, systems/regulations, and financial decisions that allow the best opportunity for growth and profit. This is how any business big or small tends to work. To infuse a sense of conscious in to the process can be difficult, especially when the largest portion of tea is exported out of the fields in which it is first harvested and in to the hands of consumers whose only connection is the picture that the larger corporation puts on the box. And yet the workers that harvest this tea that gets sucked in to the walls of the factory production have come to depend on these exports for their livelihood.

In a sense, even if we cannot find a completely satisfactory answer, I think the book sheds light on the truth that we can give some appropriate attention to the mistakes of history by always ensuring that the conversation trends towards the following concerns:
1. Provide more education regarding the who, the where and the how of tea production. Studies show that the more a consumer comes face to face (even with a picture) of the workers that harvest, the greater social awareness becomes. The upside of fair trade is that it does, at the very least, give us a face and a place to put with our product, even if the actual difference fair trade can make on fair wages remains quite minimal in the bigger picture.
2. Become educated on local regulations that directly affect global trade, and explore and research exactly how this impacts the process for foreign workers (and their products that we consume) from start to finish. Studies show that we only tend to respond with the information that lands with us and that, at the very least "feels" important. This starts with knowing, and even if most of the information feels irrelevant or allusive, hopefully one or two things end up sticking that help us recognize how a choice or action we make in a moment can trickle all the way to a life across the ocean.
3. Discover and support more local product/produce/drink (which means spending more money), while also not being fearful of global trade. Investing in tea that comes from halfway across the world is a positive thing, but in the end it will benefit those workers (and our economy and carbon footprint) by reducing our dependence, consumption and exploitation (I know, it's a terrible word to hear for a consumer) of foreign products. By tempering our consumption we put more control in to both the consumer and private producer/owner/worker, as we control the human tendency for large corporations to over produce for a global audience that desires to over consume.
4. Travel and visit and talk to personally some of the areas of the world that provide some of these products that we enjoy.

[Tee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd say I drink about 3-4 cups of tea each day (mainly green and herbal tea), and so I was thinking that I should probably learn where this tea is coming from and its history.

I instantly regretted it but kept reading nonetheless. Like many other crops, the industry of tea is linked to imperialism and capitalism as Roy Moxham illustrates in his book. The British empire has once again used colonialism/imperialism and capitalism to exploit the "coolie" laborer to do its nasty business of producing tea.

So while we sit and drink our cups of tea, the British has ensured that it's stained with cruelty and exploitation, and isn't that just wonderful?

I've been researching the exploitation of migrant workers in the West for the past three years (mainly during my MA and now PhD) and for some reason, I haven't come across the production of tea. So this was basically the cherry on top (not in a good way).

My main issue with Moxham is that he had a very Eurocentric way of illustrating the history of tea. We read accounts of how those in power exploited the Chinese and the Indians etc, but we never hear from the workers themselves, do we? Until the end of the book and it's barely enlightening. Surely there are accounts? I'd think that if I were to write a book about a brief history of tea, I'd like to include the worker's perspective. And if that is deemed difficult, then surely there are recent accounts? Since the exploitation is still occurring?

Overall, I'd say this was an informative read and certainly eye-opening. I also have to add that Moxham has a very engaging writing style, so his book was very easy to read. Some info were repetitive or not necessarily needed.
If you are curious where your tea comes from and why its history is so problematic, read this. It's quite an enjoyable read, and unfortunately very dark.

[Jay Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do enjoy the Brief History series. The book is not meant to be a major work. If you want to dive deeper, each book has an excellent bibliography. In this book you learn how Tea became a drug of choice for many Europeans. How this negatively impacted China, India, and Ceylon. How brutal the workers were treated. You learn how Colonialism impacts the people. There are histories here that I know little about such as Indian, Siri Lankan, and Kenyan history. Also, you learn something about tea. So, it is a graet introduction to British Colonialism.

[Janet Deaver-Pack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised by the depth of history revealed in this book. The author named it correctly. For those who enjoy a good cup of Oriental or Indian tea, this is an excellent choice. I was also surprised regarding the close ties of the opium and tea trades in the 1800s. Mr. Moxham also goes into detail about tea picking, as well as how various teas (such as fermented and semi-fermented, smoked, and green) are produced.

[Rucha Patkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for tea lovers! Maxhom's writing is simple and interesting. he doesn't throw jargon at the readers. His book flows seamlessly and he weaves facts beautifully in his story telling. I would highly recommend this book!

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I do not drink tea; I don't like the taste of it and never have. Nevertheless, I found A Brief History of Tea: The Extraordinary Story of the World's Favourite Drink, by Roy Moxham, to be a vastly entertaining and informative book. In it, Moxham traces the origins of tea from ancient China through to modern India, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and various nations of Africa. Moxham himself ran a tea plantation in the early 1960s, in what was then called Nyasaland and is now known as Malawi, and he begins and ends his book with some personal reminiscences of that period of his life. The story is, of course, full of imperialism, appalling working and living conditions, near-slavery and revolutions; there is also perhaps more than I, a non-believer, needed to know about the production of different types of tea and how advances in agricultural technology helped to increase yield exponentially. On the other hand, I now know why my mother prefers Typhoo Tea over all others - she is an Englishwoman and lived much of her early life around Birmingham, the home of that British company. Good to know!

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love tea. Black tea, the English way. So I thought this would be a fun book with teas, recipes, chat etc. No! It tells he dark and historic story of the impact of tea on countries, their wars and independence, the treatment of workers, as well as enough of the personal history of the author to show his expertise and awareness of history and plantations.
And then I discovered that the author was in my year at school- Prince Henry's Grammar School in Evesham, which is not a name I often see in print.
Altogether a worthwhile find though not at all what I expected.

[Andrew Little · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it for the most part. It started and ended pretty well, but at times it got bogged down in the middle with talking way too much about the mistreatment of workers on tea plantations. I understand the importance of discussing the mistreatment of workers and I know it is an important topic, but too much of the book was devoted to it and really slowed it down. I think the ending was closer to being what I thought the book would be about.

[Des · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book basically skips over China. While I understand that the author's expertise is mainly about India and Britain, the level of detail given suggests that he was perfectly capable of doing the extra research.

The title should really be "A Brief History of British Tea" or "A Brief History of Tea and Colonialism."

[Mariano Abilleira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very "fact heavy" for a casual read, although quite enlightening on the bloody background of a seemingly innocuous beverage. It really changes your perspective on some modern day luxury commodities like cacao, coffee... all come with an appalling human cost.

[Grant Arundell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've ruined way too many conversations with anecdotes from this book.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought I’d read most general histories on tea but clearly, I am wrong. I came across A Brief History of Tea while having a session at Cher’s house and immediately asked if I could borrow it because, well, I haven’t read this particular history yet.

So the thing is, I’m probably a bit biased by this point. I read the book not expecting a general history of tea, but more with an eye of finding out what makes this book different from the others. And I found it!

Unlike its title, A Brief History of Tea, doesn’t really go into a general history of tea. Instead, A Brief History of Tea focuses on the history of tea in the West. In a sense, this was a relief because it meant that a lot of the information was new to me, but on the other hand, it doesn’t really work as a general introduction to tea.

Specifically, how tea led to Britain taking hold of Hong Kong, the development of tea in India and Sri Lanka (under the most appalling conditions), and the author’s year cultivating tea in Africa. While other books do talk about tea in a more global context, this was the first book I saw that looked more closely at the conditions under which tea was, and in some cases is, grown. It is horrifying to learn about how people tricked Indians into working at the tea farms, under appalling conditions and for terrible pay, while racism ran rampant and the British tea farmers were a law unto themselves. One fact that stuck out was that the managers often had workers marry each other and gave them contracts that would end at different times – if they wanted to stay together, they’d have to keep renewing their contracts, thus perpetually binding themselves to the farm.

There’s also an interesting passage on a scam involving tea. The book writes that “at the turn of the century” (I assume as the 19th century passed into the 20th), “there was a rash of schemes to attract the gullible. Nelson and Company was the most notorious. They offered pensions to women who became widowed, in return for the purchase of regular small quantities of tea.” As you can image, this scheme was popular and the company managed to attract 250,000 customers. However, it was also unsustainable and in “the court case that followed insolvency, it was estimated that to fund these pensions, the company would have needed £30 million, but it had assets of only £20,000.”

The last chapter of the book was about the author’s year as a manager of a tea plantation in Africa. It was extremely interesting, especially since I haven’t read much about tea in Africa. However, it also felt a little disjointed – most of the book was about the history of tea and all of a sudden, we start hearing about the author’s personal experience. While I appreciated the information in the chapter, it did feel like I was reading a separate book by the same author (incidentally, if anyone has recommendations on books that focus on African teas or teas in other countries, please let me know!).

Overall, this was an interesting book. I wouldn’t recommend it as a general introduction to tea (I think that Tea: The Drink that Changed the World by Laura C. Martin is better, followed by histories of tea in either the West or the East, depending on your preference would be an easier way to get into the history of tea) but it will appeal to people who want to find out more about the conditions under which tea is grown. Lots of it will shock you, but this does nudge me towards buying from responsible brands and where possible, directly from tea farmers.

This review was first posted at Eustea Reads

[Ryan Goldie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been looking for an introduction to the troubled history of my favourite beverage for quite some time. As far as introductions go it's not a bad one. It offers a wide span of histories, ranging from China, to India, to Sri Lanka, to Bangldesh, to England, and finally to Kenya. The 'brief' in the title I think refers to the fact that it goes for breadth rather than depth. What you get is a long, often confusing, list of dates when things occurred, world events and government acts that shaped and were shaped by the Tea trade. It identifies the origins of tea's popularity in Europe and how this changed its growth and consumption in primarily India.

But that's really it. Dates and acts. The book offers few insights, other than the necessary condemnation of the horrendous crimes committed in colonional Asia, as well as the ongoing impacts of neocolonisation. These are decently explores, a mix of individual stories and wider data that gives both the scale and significance of colonialism in India.

But the best part of the book is the first couple chapters where it is not just the planting of tea that is discussed but the culture that accompanies it. The reverence for tea seen in both China and England, and how different this reverence was shown. Food history, and history generally is at its best when we can understand not only what happened but what it means to us and for us. Mohamed doesn't offer much in the way of this type of insight, and the book ends rather abruptly, no final message or thought in book rife with potential points of introspection.

I don't want to knock too many stars off because I'm not sure Moxham wanted to provide a great deal of insight. But it's not the sort of introduction that left me hungry for more, or to discuss further.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading a lot about tea & it's history lately. I drink so much of it I thought I should know more about it. This book was exactly what it claims to be - a brief history; easy to read, with enough detail to be interesting. It's a bit heavy on dates in places (which I tend to forget milliseconds after reading, but otherwise was easy to follow. The events described match up with what I've read in other books, so I'm inclined to think it's pretty reliable. Because of the authors history, there was a more personal and detailed section on tea growing in Africa, which I liked. I'd like a follow up chapter or essay though, as it leaves it all on a bit of a cliff-hangar (the book closes just as the political climate of African tea-growing nations moves towards independence).

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for fun, not research and my review is coloured by this fact.

Chapter 1 “Addiction and Taxation” (about England’s early dealings with tea) and 2 “Keeping the Chinese in Order” (about England selling opium to China to afford tea in the days before the British figured out how to grow tea elsewhere) were both really good.

Chapter 3 and onward are important, but the book started to feel very dry and became slowly bogged down in numbers and stats.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed by most of the book. Although the information seems sound if that’s what you are looking for. For an interesting read just stick to the first couple chapters.

[Kylie McGenniskin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not just a History of Tea, but a history of things that were directly and indirectly effected by tea growing and trade worldwide, including; smuggling, opium, mistreatment of anyone the Europeans could, war, the movement of silver, operation of plantations in different parts of the world, politics, major tea companies, The East India Company. A very good starting point with plenty of references to dive into afterwards. Relatively easy to read. Recommend pairing with a nice cup of your favourite hot beverage.

[Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather interesting book that I took my time reading.

This was the book I took for flights so slowly chapter by chapter it got done.

The content is informative and the writing easy. The last chapter was a nice touch to give you an idea of a tea planters life from the authors point of view.

Give the book a go.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fluid narration, full of interesting tidbits -- sometimes funny, mostly horrifying. Makes for a useful primer into British relations with China and India amongst many other things. Not as comprehensive as it could have been, and very centred on the UK, but I found it as engrossing as a novel. Now I'm full of (mostly) useless facts about my favourite drink!

[Ana Mancuso · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you not only enjoy tea but are a fan of the whole ritual and stories sorrounding it, and are also a bit of a history follower, you will love this book. Full of little fun facts as well as important milestones in the journey tea has made until it was a common beverage in your table or mine, this book leaves no period or place touched by tea out. I really liked it.

[Gary Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm embarrassed to say this book has been sitting on my library shelf, overlooked with my many other "tea" books. I usually do not add a book into my home library until it is read. This was an excellent read and well detailed, especially in the area of African plantations and tea production. The author knowledge was first hand having worked there.

[Sandesh Nayak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books brings out the exceptional story of cup of tea. How business minded britishers brought revolution in the plantation ,economic and demographic nature of British colonies.
Very detailed and full of facts which makes your cup of tea appear to be costly.

[Franz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting book. It doesn't talk (much) about the different kinds of teas but focuses on the history of tea instead which was what I wanted to learn about. Recommended.

[PJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read. A bit of mildly-confusing time jumping though. Further proof of Europeans being money-hungry bullies to all races of people.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written, well-research history of the production and consumption of tea. The author bookends his book with his own experiences managing a tea plantation in Africa in the early 1960's.

[L.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye-opening journey of tea, from cultivation to the kettle.

[Heather King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such an interesting book. About so much more than just tea - history of naval trading routes, opium, the rise of sugar, slavery, colonialism, geopolitics. Fascinating.

[Senthil K · Rating 4 out of 5]

நாம் அன்றாடம் பருகும் தேநீருக்கு பின்னால் இருக்கும் நீண்ட நெடிய வரலாற்றையும் அதன் துயர பக்கங்களையும் அலசும் நூல்