Tea and books, the perfect combination. Well, some chocolate could also be nice :)
Happy birthday, eponine38!
Enjoy life.
Warm regards.

Off it goes to eponine 38!
Enjoy the ride :)

Thank you so much, Arvores, for this wishlist book! Muito obrigada! :-)

This book is loaded with detailed information about the history of tea, more info than I could possibly absorb in one reading. Written from a British perspective, it covers how tea was grown in regions of the Empire, specifically Assam, Ceylon, and Africa (Nyasaland, a British protectorate in present-day Malawi). It provides detailed information about the political and social factors involved, including the use of local and imported workers (coolies), relationships between the plantation managers and their workers, and political events in the background (or foreground).
I also learned about climate conditions required for growing the highest quality tea, the tea auctions in London which lasted 311 years until 1998, the four largest tea companies, the invention of the tea bag (1908) and its slow acceptance by serious tea drinkers, the different grades of tea, cloning (vegetative propagation) and much, much more.
“Tea bags soon became popular in America, but they took a much longer time to cross the Atlantic. British travellers described the horror of American tea bags in tepid water. Tetleys introduced the tea bag on to the British market in 1935, but it was not until the mid 1950s that sales began to take off. By 1970 tea bags still had only 10 per cent of the British market. Sales then rose at a phenomenal rate. By 1985 they had 68 per cent of the market, and by 2000 about 90 per cent.”
One of the most interesting parts was the last chapter, about the author’s personal experiences as a 22-year old plantation manager in Nyasaland. It read like a memoir rather than a fact-laden textbook, and it was interesting to read about the social life of the managers in the district and the varied treatment of workers, both seasonal and regular. Especially interesting was the background of political unrest and growing desire for independence from Britain during that time.
Some sections were a bit dry and heavy on facts for my taste. I felt kind of guilty not being able to absorb everything without taking notes (which I didn’t have time to do). But the author’s extensive research definitely deserves 10 stars!

Traveling in Mary Zee's Biographies of Things Bookbox.

Released for Keep Them Moving Challenge hosted by booklady331.

The book box returned home to me with this book inside. I am taking the contents of the box to meet-up tomorrow because some of the locals have expressed an interest. After that, we shall see.

Rather than schlep the whole box to meet-up, I sent out a list of the contents. This book was dibsed, so I’m taking it along to its next reader.

Any future reader or recipient of this book is encouraged to leave a journal entry here on the BookCrossing site to let prior readers know the fate of the book. You can make an anonymous entry without joining the BookCrossing movement, but if you are interested in joining, it is a free and spam-free community where your contact information is not shared with others. Best of all, members receive private messages via e-mail from books like this one when those books are journaled, allowing for long-term relationships between books and readers.

Ixy was kind enough to bring this book to the meetup so that I can display it at my upcoming tea party! I'll label it so it's sure to come back with me at the end of the event so I can return it to Ixion for further reading :-)

Bringing to the Kensington Day of the Book Festival to give to a fellow BookCrosser!

As has been my habit in the last 5 or 6 years, I forgot to journal this book when I first got it. So now I journal it as I finish the book and ponder its next move.

This book very much reminds me of my trip in 2019 to London, Ireland, and Scotland. By the end of the trip I had decided that the British are evil. No country has destroyed more lives in the search for money and power than the British empire. This book is all about that.

Now granted, tea existed before the British got to Asia. But this book is written from the British perspective, so it very much follows the actions of the East India Trading Company and later the British government. Invasion of China when the emperor fought back against the British attempts of getting his people addicted to opium. Northeast India and the brutality in growing tea in Assam. Neglect and purposeful indifference in treatment of workers in Ceylon. And finally taking of the good agricultural land for tea and leaving the less workable land for the locals to grow their own food.

The book is written by a man who was one of the last 'tea plantation managers' in Malawi before it declared independent from the UK. He went to work running a tea farm when he was only 22. He tells of his personal experience mainly at the end of the book. He tries to weave this story as both being sympathetic to the locals but mainly showing how much drinking he did and how little training and thought went into taking care of the needs of the locals. In fact, they aren't called locals, residents, citizens. They are called laborers, because that was the only important part of their existence the Brits cared about.

While this is a cynical review, I'm mainly cynical about the British actions rather than the book itself. This is a book that could get your blood boiling if you let it. I have been perusing this book for about 9 months and then a final push to finish this week. I would recommend it for anyone interested in tea, but especially anyone interested in British, Chinese, or Indian history. Alot of what happened in Asia and Africa is glossed over in traditional American history classes. This gives a much more honest and eye opening account. It's well written and I enjoyed learning more about tea and history.

Note says to return to Six for the Box of Things - although I think that's already in transit. Future path TBD.

Ixion brought this book back to me at the in-person live for-real meet-up. I will hang onto it until the Bios of Things book box comes back to me.

Finally ready to start another round of the Biographies of Things book box, which means I have to realize that I never catalogued the ones that were set aside for the box and have been sitting in a stack in my storage. This book went through one round several years ago, but has had a rest and is now ready to go back on the road.

This book is now part of the Biographies of Things book box and is off to tour the country. Hopefully along the way it finds an interested reader and a new home.

Any future reader or recipient of this book is encouraged to leave a journal entry here on the BookCrossing site to let prior readers know the fate of the book. You can make an anonymous entry without joining the BookCrossing movement, but if you are interested in joining, it is a free and spam-free community where your contact information is not shared with others. Best of all, members receive private messages via e-mail from books like this one when those books are journaled, allowing for long-term relationships between books and readers.

Found in the current Biographies of Things bookbox; returning back into the box.

I chose this from the Biography of Things bookbox. Thanks!

To the finder of this book:

This book is gift, no strings attached, from me to you. You may keep it forever, pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild to be found by someone else.

If you are new to BookCrossing, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join us...it's free! If you do, please consider using me, elizardbreath, as your referring member. You can even remain anonymous if you wish!

I hope you'll make a brief journal entry so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey.

Thanks, and Happy BookCrossing! :)