Tea and Tea Drinking: A Historic Guide to Nature's Healing Herbs

"Tea and Tea-Drinking", originally published by Arthur Reade in 1884, remains one of most authoritative sources of information about tea that emerged n the 19th century, and much of Reade's research was extensively quoted in the following decades. In particular, anyone who is familiar with Kakuzo Okakura's legendary "The Book of Tea" will recognize that Okakura “borrowed” complete sections of his first chapter from Reade's "Tea and Tea-Drinking".

"Tea and Tea-Drinking" is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of tea, but Reade's particular emphasis was to look at the use of tea as a psychoactive drug and its health properties. This book therefore also gives a fascinating insight into how the public debate about stimulants, narcotics and social welfare was conducted in 19th Century Britain.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introduction of Tea CHAPTER II. The Cultivation of Tea CHAPTER III. Tea-Meetings CHAPTER IV. How to make Tea CHAPTER V. Tea and Physical Endurance CHAPTER VI. Tea as a Stimulant CHAPTER VII. The Friends and the Foes of Tea CHAPTER VIII. Tea as a Source of Revenue