“From now on, I don't care if my tea leaves spell 'Die, Ron, Die,' I'm chucking them in the bin where they belong.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Tea, a most common item in households. It is so difficult to imagine such a turbulent history and mania which is associated with this rejuvenating herb. Originating from China, tea was part of rituals and customs, elaborate ceremonies and was a thing of royal household, courts and uber rich. The path it took to become a part of everyday routine of common man is well documented in the book.

Unending and heavy demand for tea has led to wars, political upheavals, smuggling and several unspeakable crimes in a direct or indirect manner. The thirst for tea resulted in intoxication of an entire nation with opium. When the taxes were high on import of tea, it led to adulteration, smuggling and establishment of a parallel organised setup for bringing in tea illegally. British were motivated to cultivate a new market and production hub for tea and marketed it as pure as compared to adulterated produce of China.

However, such rapid onset of the market resulted in happy merchants and consumers on one side and terrible lives of tea pickers on the other side. High demand for tea saw rise of feudal lords who not only controlled but owned lives of such workers.

This book is a great account of a dark history associated with tea as the name suggests. Author has done a through research which is reflected both in prose and pictures across the book. An interesting read from first to last page.

I am not a huge fan drinking tea and thank goodness for that, this book would put me off drinking it forever, skullduggery and machinations that would make Machiavelli proud, this book is really interesting from a historic perspective and it imparts a lot of knowledge that should be known

A Dark History of Tea is an Anglophile's dream...a study of the world's most popular drink focusing mainly on the down and dirty details of how tea became Britain's "national beverage." The bulk of the book is concerned with the rise of tea in China and its eventual import into England, highlighting the unfair trade deals, impoverished workers, and illicit smuggling that that made it possible. Charrington-Hollins does a fine job juxtaposing these unsavory details with tea's image as a refined drink in England, showing that even the things thought of as the most upscale can have a dark underbelly. The Opium Wars between China and England take center stage in the riveting middle section of the book, where Charrington-Hollins describes the appalling prevalence of Opium in 19th century England during a time when tea was considered a far too expensive and therefore niche product. The usage of opium to treat everyone from infants to the elderly is especially eye-opening to read about during our modern times when many countries struggle with opioid epidemics.

The main issue I had while finishing up this book was that I found 85% of it to be a great and interesting history lesson, but the final 15% of the book is comprised of a section on the more "occult" uses of tea, such as in witchcraft, "spells", and the readings of tea leaves. While this does fit into the "dark history" aspect of the title, I found it to be a bit of a peculiar tonal shift to end the book on, which prevents me from rating it a full five stars. However, I still would recommend this highly to anyone who enjoys a cuppa and may want to learn more about the lesser known history of the drink.

**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Pen & Sword History**