Quilp, the epitome of evil in Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop, seen here with Little Nell, is a dwarf with the head of a giant and a "few discolored fangs" for teeth. But his most grotesque trait is his trick of drinking "boiling tea without winking" and eating "hard eggs, shell and all." Culture Club/Getty Images hide caption
A satire of women's social discourse in the Queen Anne period depicts six women taking tea in a parlor, with figures on the left signifying hidden emotions and power struggles behind a genteel facade. Circa 1710. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption
Tea pickers stand in the scorching sun, hand-plucking the tea leaves for about eight hours a day. Furkan Latif Khan/NPR hide caption
Classic Burmese laphet yay tea is a mix of evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and black tea. Victoria Milko/for NPR hide caption
A freshly brewed cup of Navajo tea. This beverage is caffeine-free and tastes earthy and grassy. Ada Cowan hide caption
Pinkies up, Janeites! We mark the bicentennial of Austen's death with a look at her relationship with a beloved cuppa. Shelby Knowles/NPR hide caption
Demand for domestic tea is so strong that Minto Island Tea Co. continues expanding production. Here, Camellia sinensis is planted on the Salem, Ore., farm. It takes three years for tea plants to mature for harvest. Courtesy of Minto Island Tea Co. hide caption
Pu'er tea is packed in bings at a market in China's Yunnan province. A cake of Pu'er continues to change as it ages, and bits of tea are chipped off in order to brew. Ellen Mack/Flickr Vision via Getty Images hide caption
Tamil and Sinhalese workers pick tea on Amba Estate in the early morning. Victoria Milko for NPR hide caption
Adele performs onstage during the Grammy Awards on February 12, 2017. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images hide caption
Leonard Cohen performs on stage at the Musikhalle in 1970 in Hamburg, Germany. K & K Ulf Kruger OHG/Redferns/Getty Images hide caption
Sir Thomas Lipton in 1909. Lipton was already a self-made millionaire before he ever entered the tea trade. But by figuring out how to lower the retail cost of tea and standardize his product "direct from the tea gardens," he became much, much richer. Library of Congress hide caption
Workers harvest autumn flush teas on a tea estate in Darjeeling, India. Autumn is the personal favorite flush of many of India's most discerning tea tasters, though these teas remain largely unknown and nearly impossible to find. Jeff Koehler hide caption
The "Green Giant" mechanical tea harvester, one of only a few in the world, does the manual work of 500 people. Wayne's View Photography/Courtesy of Charleston Tea Plantation hide caption
Marybong Estate, second flush. Jeff Koehler hide caption
Laxman Rao, New Delhi Courtesy of Zach Marks and Resham Gellatly hide caption
Boba 7, the speakeasy at the back of downtown Los Angeles restaurant Soi 7, serves boba cocktails made with beer or the Korean alcohol soju, in addition to an inventive nonalcoholic menu. Courtesy of Boba 7 hide caption
Nancy Reagan (left) and Soviet first lady Raisa Gorbachev both smile politely during a tension-filled tea in Geneva in 1985, while their husbands discussed nuclear disarmament. Dieter Endlicher/AP hide caption
A tea lady brings round refreshments for British office workers in the 1970s. All over the U.K., the arrival of the tea ladies with trolleys loaded with a steaming tea urn and a tray of cakes or buns was the high point of the workday. M. Fresco/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption
Object (or Luncheon in Fur), by Meret Oppenheim. In 1936, Oppenheim wrapped a teacup, saucer and spoon in fur. In the age of Freud, a gastro-sexual interpretation was inescapable. Even today, the work triggers intense reactions. Flavia Brandi/Flickr hide caption
In 1747, members of the notorious Hawkhurst Gang carried out a brazen midnight raid on the King's Custom House in Poole, England: They broke in and stole back their impounded tea. What followed over the next weeks would shock even hardened criminals. E. Keble Chatterton - King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855/Wikimedia Commons hide caption
Loose-leaf green tea of the modern variety. Archaeologists have discovered ancient tea in the tomb of a Chinese emperor who died in 141 B.C. It's the oldest known physical evidence of tea. But scientists aren't sure if the emperor was drinking tea as we know it or using it as medicine. iStockphoto hide caption