The lure of tea, tepid water with floating leaves has always put the English in a tizzy. While they enjoyed a Chicken Tikka Masala, spiced with Indian cloves and pepper, the rousing fragrance of tea pressured them to colonize the Indian sub-continent. They traded Indian opium for Chinese tea; eventually they just got Indians in the valleys of Darjeeling and Coonoor to grow the refreshing tips.
The Economist has charted the bean's slow insurgence on the leaf.
Despite an invasion of American Starbucks in Indian metropolis,
tea fuels the the fast growth of BRICS countries (save for coffee-producing Brazil) and dominates Asia
Morocco is a peculiar tea-lovers haven, nestled between Spain and border-sharing Algeria which drink coffee 86% and 77% of the time resp.
What gives?
