The Gunpowder Gardens

This is an account of the author's travels along the old tea trading routes of the Far East. The closely observed detail, both historical and personal, is at once both informative and amusing.

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Jason Goodwin, inspired by his grandmothers who spent their lives in China and India observing the custom of afternoon tea, set off to explore the relics of this imperial age and its worldwide trade, delving into the extraordinary history of tea. Evoking a vanished world, he follows the origin of tea, its use, influence and importance, from the the Canton factories through the establishment of British India and the Opium Wars, all the way to that great tea metropolis, London.