Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: A soldiers' tea party in Surrey -- Part I. Anxious relations -- "A China drink approved by all physicians" : setting the early modern tea table -- The temperance tea table : making a sober consumer culture in the nineteenth century -- "A little opium, sweet words, and cheap guns" : planting a global industry in Assam -- Packaging China : advertising food safety in a global marketplace -- Part II. Imperial tastes -- Industry and empire : manufacturing imperial tastes in Victorian Britain -- The planter abroad : building foreign markets in the fin-de-siecle -- "Every kitchen an empire kitchen": the politics of imperial consumerism -- "Tea revives the world" : selling vitality during the Depression -- "Hot drinks means much in the jungle" : tea in the service of war -- Part III. Aftertastes -- Leftovers? : an imperial industry at the end of empire -- "Join the tea set" : youth, modernity, and the legacies of empire during the swinging sixties.