The question of what bits of the ‘real’ world to take into science fiction, and whether or how to make them the same or different, is a fascinating one. Personally, I hate coffee, so when I see people drinking it and complaining about it in space (looking at you, Jim Holden), I can’t relate. Tea, though - that’s something I drink. And so when Breq, in Ancillary Justice, talks about it being a fundamental drink for her people: that’s familiar but also not. And the history of tea, of course, is inherently tied to the history of tea. And so in today’s essay, Kemi Ashing-Giwa looks at both of those things, and how she brought both tea and empire into space in her debut novel, The Splinter in the Sky. If you’re somewhere cold right now, read it with a cup of tea! … not me though: it’s going to be over 30C here today.