The remarkable story of the ambitious and innovative man who made his name synonymous with tea. Raised in desperate poverty, Sir Thomas Lipton built a global empire of markets, factories and stockyards with a prodigious talent for business and a shameless flare for self-promotion. He created the first chain of grocery stores before setting his sights on the tea trade, but in his day he was equally famous for another exploit: his pursuit of the international sailing trophy, the America's Cup. Now, a Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist chronicles this larger-than life character.