Did You Know?

Plant hunter, botanist, thief and spy?

Scotsman Robert Fortune, (1812-1880) is widely credited with introducing tea to the British Empire. But how?

In one of the first cases of corporate espionage, Robert disguised himself as a Chinese merchant and purchased tea plants in China. (China at the time had a global monopoly on tea.) He shipped these to India in specially made crates, and a new industry was born.