John Keay
Leaves Of Fortune
For All the Tea in China: Espionage, Empire and the Secret Formula for the World’s Favourite Drink
By Sarah Rose
Hutchinson 275pp £18.99
The most expensive coffee beans are said to be those excreted in the droppings of the palm civet. A weasel-like creature, the palm civet devours ripe coffee berries but discharges their inner beans intact. Endowed with a distinctive flavour by this digestive experience, the beans may then be scooped up by knowledgeable foragers, and when washed and lightly roasted, they retail in New York and Tokyo for up to $600 a kilo. A similar provenance was once ascribed to the choicest nutmegs, with the feral agent in this case being the outsize fruit-pigeon of the nutmeg’s original habitat in Indonesia. Other kernels, like the cashew, could also be candidates for ‘animal-added value’, and there is apparently a tea that falls in the same category. According to Sarah Rose, author of this breezy account of the botanist Robert Fortune, so-called ‘monkey tea’ nowadays costs ‘several thousand dollars an ounce’ – which makes civet coffee and pigeon nutmeg sound quite affordable.
On one of several visits to ‘the tea countries of China’ in the 1840s, Robert Fortune was the first foreigner to notice ‘monkey tea’ and offer an explanation of its name. At the time, all tea came from China. Fortune was there to end this monopoly by obtaining
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm