• For All the Tea in China

  • How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History
  • By: Sarah Rose
  • Narrated by: Sarah Rose
  • Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (280 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
For All the Tea in China  By  cover art

For All the Tea in China

By: Sarah Rose
Narrated by: Sarah Rose
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.61

Buy for $14.61

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

In 1848, the British East India Company, having lost its monopoly on the tea trade, engaged Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, to make a clandestine trip into the interior of China - territory forbidden to foreigners - to steal the closely guarded secrets of tea horticulture and manufacturing. For All the Tea in China is the remarkable account of Fortune's journeys into China - a thrilling narrative that combines history, geography, botany, natural science, and old-fashioned adventure.

Disguised in Mandarin robes, Fortune ventured deep into the country, confronting pirates, hostile climate, and his own untrustworthy men as he made his way to the epicenter of tea production, the remote Wu Yi Shan hills. One of the most daring acts of corporate espionage in history, Fortune's pursuit of China's ancient secret makes for a classic 19th-century adventure tale, one in which the fate of empires hinges on the feats of one extraordinary man.

©2010 Sarah Rose (P)2010 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

“A delicious brew of information on the history of tea cultivation and consumption in the Western world.... A remarkably riveting tale.” ( Booklist)

More from the same

Author

Narrator

What listeners say about For All the Tea in China

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    110
  • 4 Stars
    86
  • 3 Stars
    54
  • 2 Stars
    19
  • 1 Stars
    11
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    81
  • 4 Stars
    48
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    13
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    93
  • 4 Stars
    61
  • 3 Stars
    25
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Tea History

Good book with moderate naration. The author's narration at times like a high school student. A better sound will enhance this audiobook.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story

As someone already deeply interested in tea and in China, I still learned a lot. Fascinating and detailed story - though very Anglo-centric in narrative. The narration is overly dramatic and a bit irritating at moments, wish she would maintain a somewhat more neutral tone, but I got used to it. Overall - great book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Riviting Story

If you could sum up For All the Tea in China in three words, what would they be?

A riviting story.

What about Sarah Rose’s performance did you like?

It added to the experience but at the same time didn't call attention to itself.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It did make me cringe and moan when the first batch of tea plants so labouriously collected were lost do to ineptitude in transport.

Any additional comments?

I really loved this book first and formost because it is an amazing story. That it is true and a fascinating piece of history of which I was previously unaware is an added bonus.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wacky Victoriana

This is a hidden gem. It's everything wacky about Victorian Imperialistic England wrapped up in a true story. The woman isn't trying to be droll but it just is.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Great subject, awful recording

I found this to be a very interesting and informative subject which I was highly motivated to learn about....but that wasn't enough to get me through the awful narration. The first audiobook I've never been able to finish. I would cringe every time I'd listen! Ugghhhh...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

First Rule of Audio Books

I so wanted to like this book -- and maybe it is as good as I wanted it to be. But I just couldn't make it through more than 45 minutes because of the narration. It's grating and quirky and unpleasant to listen to. I have learned the First Rule of Audiobooks - BEWARE OF BOOKS NARRATED BY THE AUTHOR. I have also developed a new appreciation of good narrators.
Please check the preview before buying - I wish I had.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Needs a different narrator

Because authors sometimes write in a style that is similar to the way they talk/speak, I can imagine this trait would also make them the best choices to read their own books. Not this time.

I don't know if she's just too enamored of her work, or if she usually reads to 6-year olds, but Sarah Rose's narration is frustratingly bad. She seems determined to keep the reader in a constant state of WOW!, and the material doesn't lend itself to that sort of narration. She gives way too many words way too much emphasis, and most of the time it feels as though she's emphasizing the wrong words. Rose reads with some very strange phrasing -- are there really that many commas in the original work and are they really in those places? Her inflection goes up when it should go down and vice versa. The substance of the book is quite interesting, but the narration really gets in the way. I find myself thinking more about how I would read a particular sentence than I do about this history of tea.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Authors shouldn't try to narrate

I have listened to over 600 books since I joined audible a few years ago. This is the second that I have not been able to finish because the narration is so irritating. She emphasises odd words that carry little meaning and her voice is unpleasantly perky. I do read to 6 year olds on a regular basis and would never subject them to such reading where the tones and rhythms just don't match the content. I'm sure it's a very interesting book, I was very excited to buy it, but I just can't listen past Chapter 2, Read this one yourself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Couldn't finish it

I really wanted to hear this book, but gave it up 1/3 of the way through because the narrator (the author) is 1) has a hard-to-listen-to voice and 2) is inappropriately dramatic. Read this book. Do NOT listen to it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Too much one man's story

What could Sarah Rose have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

The subject is interesting. But this was too much the story of one man's journey. Too many details related to Fortune's life. His life has some very interesting elements, but not so many as to sustain my interest through the whole book. I stopped listening somewhere on his second journey to China.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The presentation style was a bit over dramatized for my taste.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!