Across tea-drinking cultures, writers have milked hot tea for all its worth to add a splash of narrative panache to comic or erotic scenes or to build mood, momentum and character.
The Oscar-nominated film has reignited interest in the life (and love interests) of a corpulent, gouty, queen who liked chocolate more than tea. So why are Queen Anne and tea-drinking so closely tied?
Myanmar's tea shops have long been central as public spaces to meet and talk, especially during the military regime. But with the country's "opening" to Western influence, their prominence is fading.
Grown in China's remote Yunnan Province, this legendary, fermented dark tea changes as it ages. Like a fine wine, pu'er is sipped, savored and collected by devotees.
The island nation is one of the world's biggest exporters of tea, an industry that employs a sizable part of the population. We visit one organic tea farm that shares revenues with its workers.
Calls for a boycott are not new for Adele. And now, embroiled in the politics of both left and right, she will likely think longingly back to her first, uncomplicated boycott — about her tea-making.
Lipton is just about synonymous with industrial Big Tea these days. So you might be surprised to learn that once upon a time, Lipton was known for selling tea direct from its own gardens.
Darjeeling is the "Champagne of teas," sold by distinct harvest season, or flush. But while many of India's top tea experts point to the autumn flush as their favorite, those teas are largely unknown.
America's only large-scale commercial tea plantation is located on Wadmalaw Island, S.C. It makes tea from bushes descended from plants first brought here in the 1700s. We chat with its tea taster.
Darjeeling is one of India's most prized and priciest teas. For over a century, it was sold at live auctions steeped in tradition, with all due pomp. But the last of those auctions ended this month.
Resham Gellatly and Zach Marks spenteight months traveling through India, meeting with hundreds of India's chai wallahs — or tea vendors — who highlight the country's culture and diversity.
Boba is the Taiwanese beverage that allows you to chew your drink. In its latest incarnations (think horchata and cocktail bobas), it's playing ambassador to a whole host of other foods and trends.
British tea drinking is on the decline. U.K. leaders might have welcomed such news in the 1970s, when the length of the tea break became a major point of political contention.
In 1936, the surrealist Meret Oppenheim wrapped a teacup, saucer and spoon in fur. In the age of Freud, a gastro-sexual interpretation was inescapable. Even today, the work triggers intense reactions.
In the 1700s, steep taxes made tea too pricey for most. Smugglers like the notorious Hawkhurst Gang helped feed England's growing taste for tea, operating with a mix of popular support and fear.
Archaeologists found the 2,100-year-old tea leaves in the tomb of a Han dynasty emperor, suggesting tea was highly valued. But was the emperor drinking tea as we do, or using it as medicine?
In some fancy hotels, Christmas tea has become a refined respite for harried shoppers. But the tradition's roots are much rowdier: efforts to fight public drunkenness.
This week marks the 242nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This year is the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. If you'll follow us down the rabbit hole, you'll find some surprising links.
Hot or cold, in a soda, hot toddy or beer — people are finding all sorts of ways to imbibe cascara. It's a caffeinated, tea-like drink with a fruity flavor made from dried coffee cherries.
Dozens of green tea drinks and pills for sale claim to help you burn more fat. But there's scant evidence that green tea, or any other food or drink product, can have a lasting impact on metabolism.
Tea drinking has long been synonymous with female tittle-tattle. Though men drank as much tea and gossiped as avidly as women, it was the latter who got stuck with the bad rap.
China and its trade practices are often blamed for U.S. economic woes. But once upon a time, it was the tea trade with China that created American magnates — with some catastrophic consequences.
We think of tea as healthful, but from Morocco to Taiwan to the American South versions of it have become so sugar-laden that a regular tea habit might be just as unhealthful as a soda habit.
These days, green tea has its health halo pretty firmly affixed. But in Victorian England, adulteration was rampant, and the drink was seen as a "stomach-churning, nerve-jangling threat to health."
People in the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest were drinking cacao and tea-like yaupon in places where neither grew. That suggests an extensive trade network to deliver a caffeine fix.
