During Britain’s early love affair with tea, a Scottish botanist named Robert Fortune emerged as a key figure. He was instrumental in what is now called agricultural espionage.⁣ ⁣ Fortune went into China disguised as a local and stole about 20,000 saplings of tea, which were cultivated in Darjeeling in northeastern India. But then, Britain's grand quest to import tea from China took an ironic twist.⁣ ⁣ #tea #tracesofchina #cgtneurope #espionage #culturalexchange