This is a great read about Robert Fortune, a Scottish gardener, botanist, and plant hunter, and also an industrial spy. In 1848, the East India Company hired him to make a covert journey into China's interior, which was forbidden to foreigners, to obtain the closely guarded secrets of tea. For centuries, China had been the only producer of tea in the world, and Britain gained access to this valuable commodity by trading opium to the Chinese - a destructive relationship that led to two wars.

As the middleman, the East India Company had profited greatly, but now it was facing decline after losing its monopoly on the tea trade. Its solution was to establish its own tea plantations in the Himalayas of British India. However, India had no quality tea plants, and the company lacked the knowledge to successfully grow them. This led to Robert Fortune's risky journey into the Chinese interior, a region that was unknown and inaccessible to the West, but known for producing the finest teas such as oolongs, souchongs and pekoes.