The Indian Ocean Chai Trade: How Tea Conquered the Maritime World

In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the forgotten story of tea's maritime journey from China to the Indian Ocean world. While the Tea Horse Road brought pu'er to Tibet, another route saw Fujianese junks carrying wuyi and oolong teas to Batavia, where the VOC took over and flooded Europe with cheap Chinese tea. We meet Zheng Zhilong, the pirate-merchant who controlled the Taiwan Strait tea trade, and his son Koxinga, who blockaded Dutch Formosa. We explore the British East India Company's shift from silver to opium to pay for tea, the Boston Tea Party that wasn't about tea at all, and the clipper ship races that cut the journey from months to weeks. Along the way, we discuss tea's role in the Opium Wars, the rise of Darjeeling plantations, and the global habit that reshaped economies. No prior episode has covered tea's maritime trade, making this a fresh addition to the Trade Routes series. #TeaTrade #MaritimeHistory #IndianOcean #VOC #DutchEastIndiaCompany #BritishEastIndiaCompany #OpiumWars #BostonTeaParty #ClipperShips #ZhengZhilong #Koxinga #Formosa #Batavia #Darjeeling #Fujian #TeaHorseRoad #History #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo