The most prized item at Glassbelly, a new tea-focused restaurant in Hong Kong, is the Niu Lan Keng Rougui, a rare variety of tea from a valley in China’s Wuyi Mountains. The cost? $3,437 for ...

In 1866, Britain imported 96 percent of its tea from China. By 1894, this number had fallen significantly, with India and Sri Lanka supplying 88 percent of the tea consumed in Britain.