There are those who claim that the country’s early problems with tea, made coffee the national beverage, but that overlooks some obvious truths - Rum was insanely popular in the Colonial and pre-constitutional periods and that tea in the States was a complicated issue. Yes, the Boston Tea Partiers, where prominent citizens dressed as Mohawk Indians and dumped some 90,000 lbs of tea into the Boston Harbor in December, 1773. Around the same time, tea was seized and it along with the barrels it was shipped in were burned in New Jersey across from Philadelphia. Back in Massachusetts, a crowd so outraged that Weston tavern was purportedly selling tea, they stormed the tavern and ignored the tea, and drank the tavern dry - a cautionary tale about the wisdom of mobs?
John Hancock, patriot and signer of the Declaration of Independence helped arrange credit and loans enabling tea trade for the reviled East India Company. Paul Revere, as a silversmith, was handsomely rewarded and somewhat famous for his hand crafted silver tea service. Robert Morris, who helped finance the revolutionary army, did so by smuggling tea during the war. After the war, Morris sent one of the first ships sailing under a US flag to trade with China – for tea.
By 1789, the US Federal Government was taxing tea – 15¢ per pound of black tea, 22¢ on green tea and the first luxury tax excised 55¢ on a pound of young Hyson, a premium green tea. In 1854, Commodore Perry’s gunboat diplomacy opened Japan for trade - tea and teapots, were 2 principal exports. In 1859, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea company was founded – although a former shadow of itself, A&P is still in business.
Americans still drink plenty of tea - a little under a 1/2 pound per resident - keep in mind you can get 100 servings out of that amount of tea, compared to 16-20 cups of coffee. Although the consumption of green tea has doubled in recent years, 90% of all tea brewed in the States is black and astounding 80% of it comes in the form of iced tea. The UK is the tea sippinest culture in the world, downing about 10 more tea than we do in the states. Coffee is still king, about 9 lbs on average per US citizen nearly 20 times more coffee passes through our citizenry than tea.
Not long ago, Tea Parties were the exclusive domain of little girls hosting their dolls for a sit down or an adult social event with aspirations and cucumber sandwiches. Now they are political rallies that occasionally featuring posters of President Obama sporting a Hitler mustache. I rather attend the little girls party pouring pretend tea out of a pot, the conversation appears to be better there.
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