A common misconception surrounding the Boston Tea Party is the type of tea involved, with many believing only black tea was consumed and subsequently dumped into Boston Harbor. However, historian Bruce Richardson, founder of Elmwood Inn Fine Teas, clarifies that both green and black teas were equally popular among colonists.
"The Founding Fathers and their contemporaries drank both types of tea," Richardson told Fox News Digital. "British subjects were as likely to be drinking green tea as black tea, whether you were in Jane Austen [era] England … or you were in colonial Boston."
During that period, tea was exclusively imported from China, with five varieties available: two green teas, Hyson and Singlo, and three black teas, Bohea, Souchong, and Congou. Richardson, who also serves as the tea master at the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum, noted that Bohea was the most common and least expensive black tea, often made from older leaves. Its ubiquity was such that teapots were sometimes labeled "Bohea," and people would ask for "a cup of Bohea."
Colonists maintained distinct ways of storing their tea, with the affluent using wooden tea caddies that often had separate compartments for green and black teas, kept under lock and key.
Merchants frequently preferred black tea for shipments due to its resilience on the long voyage from China to the American colonies, whereas green tea, which was China's traditional beverage, was more susceptible to spoilage during transit.
Even after the colonists boycotted British tea, they sought to preserve their tea-drinking customs by creating "Liberty Teas." These were brewed from ingredients like dried apples, blueberries, chamomile, and other garden herbs, allowing them to maintain their ritual without supporting the British government.