Why does tea matter? Not the leaf alone, but what people do around it. This is a conceptual map connecting tea's plant science, history, language, ritual, and ethics — a web you explore by node, where each idea carries its own sources.
Node size · depth of attention
CoreSubstantialDevelopingOpening
Colour · theme
How to read this. The map is one way in; the same content is written out in full below, and every claim is tied to a numbered source you can check yourself. Legends of tea's discovery are named as legends, not history. Health effects are stated as the evidence states them — modestly. And where tea's story runs through empire and coerced labour, the map keeps the people who lived it at the centre.
Read it as a list
Every node, in full, with its sources
References & resources
Sources are listed once here and cited by number on each node. Peer-reviewed and institutional sources link directly; books and reports are cited in full so they can be found in any library catalogue.