Tea Anecdotes from Literature.

Plough through enough books on; history, botany, travel, biographies and scientific tomes, plus novels, both fact and fiction, you tend to collect and triangulate numerous stories and statistics. Legends and fiction, sprinkled with “truths and facts” are pervasive in the world of tea.
Tea stories:
From: “Three Men in a Boat” by Jerome Klapka Jerome, published in 1889.Left to Right:
Carl Hentschel (Harris) George Wingrave (George) Jerome K. Jerome (J)

“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.”
We put the kettle on to boil, up in the nose of the boat, and went down to the stern and pretended to take no notice of it, but set to work to get the other things out.
That is the only way to get a kettle to boil up the river. If it sees that you are waiting for it and are anxious, it will never even sing. You have to go away and begin your meal, as if you were not going to have any tea at all. You must not even look round at it. Then you will soon hear it sputtering away, mad to be made into tea.
It is a good plan, too, if you are in a great hurry, to talk very loudly to each other about how you don't need any tea, and are not going to have any. You get near the kettle, so that it can overhear you, and then you shout out, "I don't want any tea; do you, George?" to which George shouts back, "Oh, no, I don't like tea; we'll have lemonade instead - tea's so indigestible." Upon which the kettle boils over, and puts the stove out.
We adopted this harmless bit of trickery, and the result was that, by the time everything else was ready, the tea was waiting. Then we lit the lantern, and squatted down to supper.
It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions. After eggs and bacon, it says, "Work!" After beefsteak and porter, it says, "Sleep!" After a cup of tea (two spoonsful for each cup, and don't let it stand more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now, rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature and into life; spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!"

From: "The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams, published in 1979.
“No” he said. “Look. Its very, very simple … all I want …. Is a cup of tea. You are going to make me one for me. Keep quiet and Listen.” And he sat. He told the Nutri-Matic about India, he told it about China, he told it about silver teapots. He told it abot summer afternoons on the lawn. He told it about putting in the mike before the tea so it wouldn’t get scalded. He even told it (briefly) about the history of the East India Company.

“So that’s it is it ?” said the Nutri-Matic when he had finished.
“Yes.” Said Arthur, “that is what I want.”
“You want the taste of dried leaves in boiled water?”
“Er, yes. With milk.”
“Squirted out of a cow?”
“Well, in a manner of speaking I suppose …”

Synopsis of Tea Consumption over Time.
A few thousand years ago, some jungle tribal groups of south-east Asia chewed leaves from the tea plant.
Some two thousand years ago, tea was being drunk by a handful of religious communities.
A thousand years ago, it was drunk by millions of Chinese.
Five hundred years ago, over half of the world’s population was drinking tea. During the next 500 years it spread across the planet.
Second only to water, tea is more ubiquitous than any other type of drink. Its world consumption is equal to all other manufactured drinks combined, coffee, chocolate, cocoa, carbonated beverages and alcoholic drinks.