For all the tea in China

0
182

“FOR ALL THE TEA IN CHINA”

di: Sarah Rose
ed: Penguin books

Un fantastico libro con cui andare alla scoperta delle avventure di Robert Fortune, l’uomo che rubò il tè alla Cina e che ne cambiò le sorti del commercio.

Percorriamo la vera storia di come la corona inglese sia riuscita ad entrare in possesso, nel XIX° secolo, dei preziosissimi segreti del tè cinese e a creare così un tè indiano di ottima qualità.

Attraverso le avventure di Fortune, delle sue peripezie e delle difficoltà che incontrò in Cina, “For all the tea in China” ci introduce un passaggio fondamentale per il commercio inglese: la nascita del tè indiano e la fine del monopolio del tè cinese.

Un racconto appassionante, ricco di dettagli interessanti e di curiosità dell’epoca da accompagnare con una tazza di tè darjeeling.

Acquistalo subito cliccando qui!

Il testo è in lingua inglese.

Eccone degli estratti:

Now Royle had a proposition to make: Would Fortune be willing to return to China in the employ of the East India Compay as a tea hunter? […] He was being engaged only to collect tea. The property rights to all the other plants he collected – the ornamentals, grasses, seeds, seedlings, flowers, fruits, ferns, and bulbs – would be Fortune’s alone. With such generous conditions it would be possible for him to start collecting on his own account and to sell samples at auction for potentially vast profits. […]
But what the company had now requested of him was a much bigger undertaking than simply collecting. Fortune would have to steal samples of one of the world’s most economically valuable plants, keep them healthy, and arrange for their successful trans-plantation on another continent. It was the most formidable task a botanist had ever faced. He would have to speak to Jane. […]


With Wang walking five paces ahead to announce his arrival, Fortune, dressed in his mandarin garb, entered the gates of a green tea factory.
Wang began to supplicate frantically. Would the master of the factory allow an inspection from a visitor, an honoured and wised official who had travelled from a far province to see how such glorious tea was made?
The factory superintendent nodded politely and led them into a large building with peeling gray stucco walls. Beyond it lay courtyards, open work spaces, and storerooms. It was warm and dry, full of workers manufacturing the last of the season’s crop, and the woody smell of green tea hung in the air. […]

Leggi un breve riassunto in italiano!

Leggi quali sono gli altri libri sul tè!

ph: sushaninateacup

LASCIA UN COMMENTO

Scrivi un commento!
Scrivi il tuo nome qui