Tea is my favourite thing to drink. I prefer plain and simple green tea, without milk. Naturally I highly enjoyed this informative and well written book on tea.


"Tea’s proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence." [ Samuel Johnson]


See, tea is an innocent, proper and prim drink. Well you thought so. Who knew tea had a strong connection to opium ? Do you know about imitation black tea? "Imitation black tea often contained hawthorn, ash and sloe leaves combined with chamber lye (the contents of the chamber pot) or animal dung and bran. Once ground down it was said that such a mixture strongly resembled the popular Bohea tea."


There are some sensational and gruesome stories of murder, the cause? Tea, obviously. People killed because of their tea business, people killed people by poisoning their tea, people wanted profit so they adulterated tea thus rendering it poisonous. The public fear about adulterated tea was so great that tea dealers were treated "‘almost as a secret assassin, ready to enter every man’s house to poison him and his family. It almost converted the English into a nation of botanists."

 

The negative impact of tea was so rampant that Wesley [an Anglican minister] even offered advice on how to deal with the awkward social situation of declining the offer of taking tea.


This book discusses in great length about the popularity,negativity,positivity,colonialism and other paraphernalia that came with tea as a profitable product [it even contains a chapter on how to read tea leaves ]. 


Of course, there is slog which is kind of unavoidable in non-fiction. There must be some boring details and datas. On the other hand the book is full of pictures! 



* ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review .

trigger warning
<spoiler> child rape, being drugged, infanticide, abortion, drug abuse, alcoholism, racism, torture, human trafficking, miscarriage, slavery, use of the slur "gypsy" </spoiler>

This book tells the history of tea made out of the tea-plant. The mythological origins in China, how it arrived in Europe, became famous. How wars were fought in order to finance the import.

Let me start with the title of this book. It should be "A Dark History of Tea in Britain", because this book is anglocentric. I thought I had a general history of tea here, but no. It goes so far, that the author speaks of "we" when talking about british people.
While it starts off with the history of tea in China and Japan, and we get some small allusions to other European countries, once you reach the Opium wars, the book doesn't even pretend anymore that there are countries aside from the empire. The way this was handled felt jarring. It would have been so easy to just say in the introduction that it's a huge field so the author is concentrating on one area, and it would have been fine.

Point two. The footnotes. There are exactly 10.
Need I say more or should I elaborate?
It's just... where did you get your facts? Where, exactly, could I look something up if I want to go in deeper on that aspect? A small list of literature at the back is not enough.
Even if you were to say we don't do footnotes, how come there are exactly 10? It felt as if the author remembered in one chapter that there are ways to do this, and then forgot again.
I looked up on the Netgalley profile if I was given an unfinished proof, but I can't find anything on that.

Next problem: The writing. There is this weird thing going on where on one hand, the author beats around the bush and refrains from clearly naming things. The feces used to contaminate tea are "contents of a champer pot", for example. On the other hand, if there is the opportunity to use outdated and offensive language to describe people, it is done. It's 2020 everyone, you should know better than to use "gypsy" in earnest.

At the end, every pretense of writing some serious nonfiction is thrown over board with listing recipes for magic rituals without naming the source - yeah, common problem in this book - or any details or having any kind or consistent formatting.

Even if you'd say I have an unfinished proof, the writing style is more than just iffy. You'd have to say unedited. I really don't know what to make of this.

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

Thank you to Pen and Sword and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

As someone who consumes a good 6+ cups of tea a day, I knew that this was a history book for me. It isn't a completely in-depth history of tea, but it does give a good basis on how tea arrived in Britain, the trajectory of its status in Britain, and how the market evolved. As the title might imply, it doesn't attempt to hide the dark and problematic history of tea in Britain, and the relationships between Britain and China, and Britain and India. Excellent use and inclusion of primary sources!

My only fault with the book is that it should be titled A Dark History of Tea in Britain, as it really only looks at Britain. It is a wonderful study of that, but to be clear, I would reflect that in the title.

Good look at the history of tea and how it grew to the drink we know and the relations between countries. War, leisure, companies and more. Really good read.

This was a good read about historical events and I learnt lots of facts that I did to know, this made it a very interesting read. It was not an easy book to read as the date order jumped in and out of sequence many times which I did not really like and could not see any reason for it either, I found it off putting as opposed to adding an impact.
I am not sure that the title fits the book that well as I could to think of it as the dark side, more like the shady side. In places this was rather dry but in other places it was fascinating, the photo’s were lovely additions.
Rather than the story of tea I felt that it was very close to being the story of the East India Tea Company.
Having said all the above I do have to add that I had not previously known of the U.K. involvement in the Opium Trade and this book certainly gave an excellent view of that. I was surprised about the fact that coffee was the preferred drink of the British prior to Tea as I had always assumed the reverse was true. The author gives a lovely view of the life of the smugglers, the way tea had been taxed and the worst of all, the highly descriptive ways that tea was adulterated was frightening to say the least.

The gore and the ugly side of humanity are show very descriptively in this book. I did enjoy the rich history behind such a common household item. I definitely recommend this book if you are drawn to the more gruesome side of history.
Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy.

This book was an interesting but dry overview of tea and its history. Given the "Dark" aspect of it, I thought it would be a little darker but in actually it was just straightforward history. I would've given 3 stars if my expectations were more properly met.

A bit bland and tedious in areas but a comprehensive resource for those interested in the history of tea. The accompanying graphics were a nice compliment to the text.

"A Dark History of Tea" is a history of tea from the British viewpoint. The author talked about how the British first imported tea as a medicinal herb and how the desire for more tea led to the Opium Wars and the increased use of opium in Britain, as well. The author talked about the high taxes that led to smuggling, how people added chemicals and leaves of other plants to the tea to make it cheaper and how this led to health problems for those who drank a large amount of tea, how the British tea time developed (etiquette, superstitions, teaware, dresses), and how tea was once linked with seduction. The author also talked about how tea was planted in India, what life was like for the workers on these tea plantations, the tea auctions in Britain, how tea went from being imported in blocks to loose leaf to the development and slow acceptance of tea bags. The book ended with things like the popularity of tea leaf readings and instructions on how to do it. It was an interesting overview of the history of British involvement with tea and how the harm done was hidden by propaganda or advertising.

I found this topic interesting, but this book is very, very short. I read it in about a half hour. I really with the author and publisher had done more to fill out this book with full chapters. The writing was fine, but the topics needed some editing to make them flow together a little better.

Whilst it takes a global view, A Dark History of Tea should really be called A Dark British History Of Tea. WIih the exception on an opening chapter which runs through the Chinese history (the dark brew ages of tea), this is understandably a very anglocentric take on the history if tea. Not that it shies away from the horrors that have been committed in the name of tea, its core plank as part of the opium triangle in the Opium Wars is well identified, but the book does worry about its tone when it has to reveal that tea was the main reason we doomed an entire nation to addiction and penury. The book has this problem throughout, that tea was one of many hot beverages that fuelled the coffee houses on the seventeenth century that fermented revolt. There are swathes of the book where the focus on tea is loosened to try to take in the big picture, which is more than acceptable when you are talking about the British Empire or East India Company, but it does sometimes feel less like a history of tea, and more like an empire primer.

Despite this its a very enjoyable read, dipping into the vignettes about how tea begins to dominate British life is fascinating. And if the Empire bits feel a little passionless, this is understandable. Giving equal space in the book to the indenture system in India to the development of Nippies and romance in Lyons Tea Rooms is going to cause a little whiplash. It is around the time we hit the 20th Century when the book really gives up too much pretence of rigour and becomes collections of fun vignettes, the Young Poisoners Handbook digression is great if off point. There are possibly better books to be written about the development of tea as a national drink, the economic and political importance of tea in Empire, and the culinary development of it as a beverage (and not mentioning Earl Grey, or British herbal teas like Nettle seems to be a strange omission), but this has got mostly everything in one place to at least tie these threads together.

[Netgalley ARC]

This was definitely an interesting book to flip through! Had some intersting back ground stories about tea, how it became popular and importsnt in society! My favourite chapter was the one about witchcraft!
It also had some amazing drawings!

The Dark History of Tea by Seren Charrington Hollins is a comprehensive history of tea. Many aspects discussed aren’t really that dark, but some are. The author gives us an outline of tea’s history as mentioned by various Chinese authors prior to its appearance in Europe when Thomas Garraway was selling it at the Sultaness Head In London in 1657. The book then takes various topics, combining the narrative of tea’s growing popularity with the consequential ruthless steps taken by people involved in the trade to get rich quick.

Tea’s dark side had many facets: the high tax on tea made it attractive for smugglers (far easy to hide packets of tea than barrels of spirits) and there are some gruesome tales of smugglers’ deeds. The East India Company imported tea from China, initially paying for it with silver and cheap Indian cotton. However, the American revolution cut off Mexico as a source of silver and so the Company had no silver. Instead, the Company sold opium which was exported to China, where corrupt officials paid for it with silver, that was brought back to India, thus ensuring the Company had enough silver to pay for the tea.

Tea, like many staples, was adulterated before sale prior to the Food Adulteration Act of 1860. Just for once, be thankful for Government!

I did enjoy the chapter on Tea and Seduction. I hadn’t realised that the tea gown was an opportunity for women to relax without corsets. The social aspects of afternoon tea were my favourite part of the book.

The prose is a little rich at times, with phrases such as “the rich tapestry of mythology”. The chronology is a little confusing: it jumps from Garraway in C17th England to Cornelis Bontekoe publishing a paper on tea drinking (that recommended taking it between fifty and a hundred times a day) in the Netherlands in 1768 – and then back to Samuel Pepys in 1660.

The book states “Today the image of taking tea might conjure up images of elegance and gentility…” (Yes, it does, because those images were planted in our heads two paragraphs earlier when mentioning Catherine of Braganza’s practice of serving tea in a striking porcelain tea service.) Yet the sentence continues “… but tea-drinking initially spread through the male-dominated coffee-house.” There is nothing factually wrong with the juxtaposition of the images, but it confuses the reader to be led in one direction but then suddenly swerve into a different one.

Similarly, the book states that the tea tax had “no bearing on how much tea the British consumed” but one page later we read that the tax cut in the Commutation Act of 1745 “benefited not only the tea-drinking public…” If the tax didn’t influence behaviour then reducing it would be of no benefit, surely? The author makes interesting points, citing good sources. It’s just that I feel the argument could flow better.

And I don’t understand how Judith Defour’s conviction for murdering her daughter in 1734 shocked Victorian society to its core, as that would be over 100 years later.

In summary, a highly informative book with great illustrations – but would perhaps benefit from tighter editing.

#ADarkHistoryofTea #NetGalley

Oh what a wonderful book this is and with a very appropriate title. I was always aware that tea had a dark history but Seren Charrington-Hollins has made a wonderful job of shining light into all sorts of obscure corners and in the process showing the reader what a rotten bunch the East India Company were and what a conniving lot all the British Governments were from its founding in 1600 to its disbanding in 1874.

If you have more than a passing interest in tea and/or how rapacious the British Governments were in the 17th/18th and 19th Century, you really should read this book - accompanied, of course, by a pot of your favourite Rosie-Lea!

I drink a lot of tea. A LOT. I've never really given much thought to it beyond "Does it taste good?" and "Is it hot enough?". While reading this book, I found myself glancing at my mug of tea from the corner of my eye... almost waiting for it to do something "dark". But, of course, it isn't the tea itself that has a dark history as such. As usual, it's the human side that makes it so. This is a very well-written and laid-out book that's informative and entertaining. I'll never take a cuppa for granted again!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

*This book was received as an advanced reviewer's copy from NetGalley.

I'm always fascinated by food history, particularly the history of specific ingredients or food items. So a book all about tea seemed right up my alley. I did learn a lot of new things about tea, but I also found the book to be slightly repetitive and narrow in the scope of its environment.

A Dark History of Tea covers the time period of tea being brought to Britain and how it shaped up to be the most popular drink there. But with a catch, adulteration, illicit trade, and other nefarious things proved that tea wasn't just an innocent drink, and that people suffered for the want of it.

All in all, this is a good history of how tea came to Britain and the problems with the trade. Whether it was the opium wars or unscrupulous people mixing in all kind of ingredients with their tea, the history was covered. That being said, this is primarily about Britain's dark history with tea, and by conjunction a bit of the issues in China/India. So it's only a narrow scope of what I expected the book to be, I would have appreciated more information on tea and its vices in other places around the world as well. I also found it a bit repetitive (you will become very, very aware that tea was frequently mixed with some kind of feces, to help stretch the contents for selling, among other items). I almost felt like each new chapter was starting the book over a bit with the reiteration of some of the facts that had been covered in previous chapters.

I did appreciate that there were illustrations and inserts of correspondence from history; it helped gain new appreciation for how tea was viewed and offered some insights into the times. Overall, this was an interesting book, and a quick read on tea. For those looking for a brief look into this popular drink, this might just be your cup of tea (and yes, I'm sure I will not be the only one to make that pun)! A solid 3.5 stars from me.

Review by M. Reynard 2020

Fascinating, broad look at the history of tea

I enjoyed this book. Seren Charrington-Hollins put together a great story on the history of tea. The book is written in a conversational tone and takes some fascinating detours, such as looking at the relevant opium trade. The scope of the book is quite broad and looks at subjects like how tea is prepared, the development of tea bags, and less savory topics such as adulteration. Altogether a fascinating book that should appeal even to non-tea drinkers (such as myself).
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

This book has quite a lot to tell about one of the most popular beverages. Even though I went in expecting quite a bit of focus upon tea’s relation to the opium trade (and there is a lot of coverage here), author Seren Charrington-Hollins reveals that tea’s past carries quite a few other dark stains. However, this is more than just a collection of everything unjust, atrocity-related, or nasty from tea’s history. Despite the book’s title, “A Dark History of Tea” ends up being quite a good general microhistory in general, albeit a fairly British-centric one. Now given that the author and food historian Seren Charrington-Hollins is from the UK and specializes in British food history, this focus shouldn't be of any surprise. Nevertheless, while it was indeed interesting to read about how tea grew to become such a key part of daily life in the British isles, I also admit that I would have liked to learn at least a little about how tea became a staple drink in other countries and cultures around the world and the other major present-day tea cultures that are out there. That minor criticism aside, this is very much a solid history this is a perfect book to read curled up while enjoying a warm, comforting mug of like-I-even-need-to-say-it.

A Dark History of Tea by Seren Charrington Hollins is a concisely solid overview of the history of British tea drinking. As the title suggests, Hollins doesn’t gloss over the many problematic elements of that history, such as the racism and imperialism that lay behind it for so long.

Hollins offers up a number of chapters focusing on various aspects of the tea trade, such as how it helped contribute to the Opium Wars with China, the way its cost kept it from being widely consumed until the 18th Century, the shift from Chinese to Indian tea (and the accordant horrible conditions on Britain’s tea plantations in India), the various accoutrements of social tea (teapots, sugar tongs, etc.), how high taxes created a market for violent smugglers, the ways in which tea was adulterated with a range of materials that at best only served to make the tea less like tea and at their worst literally poisoned their drinkers. We even hear of several murders where tea was an integral part of the crime. Finally, Hollins closes with a tea’s “magical” attributes across history and its health (loosely defined) benefits.

On the one hand, the structure allows for more focused chapters where we get to follow a threat of tea history from beginning to end. On the other hand, it does make for a somewhat zig-zagging kind reading as we move from the 1700s say to the late 1800s, then go back to the 1700s and move forward another one or two centuries, then go back to the 1700s’ etc. There’s also a surprising amount of repetition in the book, which may be a product of the structure as well. To be fair, that’s something I’ve noticed, albeit to differing degrees, in nearly all the Pen and Sword books I’ve reviewed. This wasn’t the most egregious, but it was close.

In terms of content, it’s a layperson’s book, not an academic history, and as such it’s both quite readable, accessible, and clear and also more of a shallow overview rather than a dig-deep kind of history. To be clear, I’m using shallow in merely a descriptive sense, not a pejorative one. It’s not meant to dig deep, and as such it effectively achieves its goal. There’s a lot of interesting information in here, some of which I knew and some I didn’t, such as how tea was used as currency in ancient China or the amount of violence centered on the tea smuggling trade. Interestingly, one of my favorite parts actually didn’t deal with tea but with the way opium products were so deeply integrated into Victorian life. My own preference would have been for more of the early history in China and Japan, more on the conditions and methods of Britain’s tea plantations in India, and less on the superstitions and “magic,” but that’s a personal preference. That said, Hollins does offer up a nice bibliography for further reading for those who, like me, might be more interested to learn more about certain aspects. Recommended as a narrowly focused introduction to tea.

Tea we know came from china and India and it has become the British national drink, this book looks at the dark side of that drink with the opium wars with China and how things were added to loose tea to baulk it out. the book itself is written that it can be easily read and also looks at other parts of the tea story which make this book interesting and should be a must read for tea lovers.