The first of five clues. Each one below gives a little more away.
I am the second most drunk thing on the planet, and the first is water.
A tax on me helped start a revolution, and the protest is still named after the harbour it was thrown into.
Black, green, white and oolong are all the same plant. The difference is only how long the leaf is allowed to breathe.
Adding milk began as a way to stop the porcelain cracking, not to improve the flavour.
A leaf, hot water, and a cup.
Tea
Camellia sinensis is a single species. Every colour, name and price on the shelf is really a decision about how long the picked leaf oxidises before heat stops it.
All tea is one plant, Camellia sinensis, and the colour is a manufacturing decision. Bruise the leaf and enzymes begin oxidising it; apply heat early and you have green tea, let it run and you have black, stop it halfway and you have oolong. China guarded the plant for centuries until the East India Company sent Robert Fortune to steal seedlings and technique in the 1840s, disguised as a Chinese official — probably the most consequential act of industrial espionage in history. The milk-first habit began as protection for porcelain that could crack when hot liquid hit it.
Reading five clues at once is not the game. In the real thing they arrive one at a time and every wrong guess costs an hour. Play mystery #32 · today's mystery · the vault
Previous: mystery #31. Next: mystery #33. Or try #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14.