World cup is not about football but is from Madeline Drexler's review of The Empire of Tea: The Remarkable History of the Plant That Took Over the World by Alan Macfarlane and Iris Macfarlane and Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire by Roy Moxham. She writes,

Tea is the most commonly consumed beverage on earth, after water -- and that's just a minor entry in its lengthy and truly mind-boggling resumé. Long before it started slumming in dunkable filter-paper bags, the "fragrant leaf" had inspired Ming Dynasty porcelain; cut death rates from waterborne infections; braced British colonial expansion; ignited the Opium War; necessitated the wondrous designs of 19th-century clipper ships; and energized the Industrial Revolution. More recently, of course, tea has earned renown as a rich source of health-bestowing antioxidants.

So it must be true. Except Chinese started to make porcelain for tea in the Song dynasty. So are they saying that Ming-style porcelain was made for tea?