Tea history: what type of tea did American founders drink?

TheOldenTimes.com image.  Woman with serving tray.

The recent occurance of T.E.A. Parties in San Jose were modeled after the famous Boston Tea Party, another political protest, that occurred during the early years of what became the United States. During the same time period as the Boston Tea Party, San Jose was founded as the first pueblo in the newly-settled Spanish province of Alta California. What kinds of tea were at the center of so much activity more than 2,000 miles away from San Jose?

In 18th century England, tea, coffee and chocolate were expensive, exotic imports, and were first popular with aristocrats. Wealthy American colonists copied their English counterparts in the consumption of tea, which eventually became popular with the middle classes as well. According to the mercantile and shipping records from the period, the American colonists purchased and drank “common” green tea, Bohea, Hyson, Gunpowder, Souchong, Bloom, Congou, Pekoe, and Singlo; some of these black and green tea blends are still available today. This tea was exclusively loose tea; tea bags were not invented until the late 19th century, and those pretty “tea bricks” (that some museums sell) were only available in Tibet and Central Asia.

Specialized tables, cups, bowls, pots, spoons, plates, and caddies were all part of the scene, and wealthy people could, and did, spend fortunes on the best things, which caused the visiting English aristocrats, and the King of England, to think that the colonists were almost rolling in money. In 1767 the King levied taxes on all imports to the North American colonies to replenish his Treasury and to fund the East India Company. Tea provided the largest amount of tax revenue (tea was taxed at 119%!), and went from being a socially popular beverage to a politically incorrect one. The purchase of tea slowed, but never really stopped! A “black market” in tea appeared, dealing in pure as well as adulterated tea.  Most patriots refused to buy tea unless it had been smuggled, and black tea gained in popularity because it was harder to add other herbal "fillers" to and pass off as pure tea. Along with coffee and chocolate, herbal tisanes like ginseng and chicory became popular tea substitutes. Some wealthy ladies resorted to deception in order to have their tea and keep their reputation as Patriots! A contemporary writer described them:

“The Ladies too were so zealous for the Good of their Country, that they agreed to drink no Tea, except the Stock of it which they had by them; or in Case of Sickness. Indeed, they were cautious enough to lay in large Stocks before they promised; & they could be sick just as suited their Convenience or Inclination. Chocolate & Coffee were to be substituted for Tea; & it was really diverting, to see a Circle of Ladies about a Tea Table, & a Chocolate or Coffee Pot in the midst of it filled with Tea ... one of them, who was very warm in her Love to her Country & to Tea, declared that she would not drink any, after her present Stock was expended; being asked, ‘what Stock of it she possessed’? Replied, ‘She had but one Chest in all’; & doubtless, if she had outlived her Stock, she would have been admitted to into her Sexe’s Hospital of Invalids.”

In memory of the earliest American tea-drinkers, who went to such lengths to enjoy tea, why not take a trip to one of San Jose’s many Asian markets and try to find one of the 18th century tea blends mentioned above? California residents of the same period also drank some of these tea blends, when they could be purchased from Spanish government supply ships. If you love tea and history as much as I do, you’ll enjoy sharing the experience with our national and state founders!

Copyright 2010, Elizabeth Urbach. If you would like to re-post or link to this article, a title with byline, and a link back to this page are required, along with my permission. You can e-mail me at southbayladiesteaguild@yahoo.com. Thanks!

For more info: History of tea in England and North America
"An Account of the Tea Tree" in Literary Magazine and American Register (November 1804)
Boston 1775 history blog
Every man his own gauger, by J. Lightbody (1695)
Judge Peter Oliver's Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion
"Science and Civilisation in China" By Joseph Needham
Tea and 18th century North America
"Tea-Drinking in Eighteenth-Century America: Its Etiquette and Equipage," by Rodris Roth in Material Life in America, 1600-1860, edited by Robert Blair St. George (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), pp 439-462. ISBN 1-55553-020- 6 (paperback).
"Tea, the East India Company, and the British Empire," by Dr. Judith Pratt, Dept. of History in Art, University of Victoria, B.C., Canada.