A History of Tea

The Life and Times of the World's Favorite Beverage

By: Laura C. Martin

Narrated by: Kathy Li

For more than two thousand years, tea has awakened, calmed, and connected people across continents and cultures.

In A History of Tea, you'll travel with this extraordinary beverage on its global journey—from the tea houses of ancient China and the Zen temples of Japan to the colonial plantations of India and Sri Lanka, and into the teacups of Britain and beyond. Along the way, discover how tea shaped empires, sparked revolutions, and inspired rituals that still endure today.

This audio edition adds fresh insight into the social and ethical challenges facing modern tea growers, plus plenty of quick-reference details on tea types, processing, terminology, and brewing—great for listening and learning on the go.

Whether your favorite cup is green, black, oolong, chai, or matcha, this engaging audiobook will deepen your appreciation for the world's most celebrated drink—one sip at a time.

©2018 Laura C. Martin (P)2025 Tuttle Publishing

a Wikipedia article set as a book, with mistakes!

Unfortunately, the narration of this audiobook completely undermines what should have been a fascinating subject. The narrator reads in a monotonous, disengaged tone, as if she has little interest in the material herself. For a book about the rich and dynamic history of tea, the listening experience is profoundly dull—I was bored to tears.
The only positive I can offer is that the narrator pronounces Chinese terms correctly. Beyond that, the performance is flat and uninspired, and it actively detracts from the content.
More troubling are the factual and editorial issues. The narration includes clear historical errors, such as implying that heroin was produced from opium in China, when heroin was in fact synthesized much later by Bayer, well after the Opium Wars. The book also states—twice—that opium was grown in China by the English, when it was actually cultivated in India. In addition, there are moments where articles are skipped, sentences are repeated, and the overall editing feels sloppy.
Taken together, these issues left me disappointed not only with the narration, but with the content and editing of the audiobook as a whole. I would strongly recommend reading a print or ebook version instead—if at all.