Thursday, February 28, 2013

Tea in Colonial America

The project that has my attention is set in pre-revolutionary Colonial America.  I am planning a trilogy focusing on the life of an ordinary man of the times from Maryland.  The first novel is -  John: the making of a Longhunter.  In that story we follow John from a child until he about 23, going through the coming of age, danger, love, conflict, success and failure.  As the title implies he goes through experiences and develops the skills to become one of the legendary Longhunters that opened up the western frontier of the times.

During the telling of his story, I often write that he stopped to rest and brewed tea.  He had tea at supper and for breakfast as well.  What is it with all this tea drinking?  Tea was a very popular and essential drink in Colonial America. In the late 1600's tea was very expensive in the colonies but be the mid 1700's is was the predominant drink.  Chocolate and coffee were popular with the French Americans, but tea was the drink of choice.  By 1768 the colonials were consuming about two million pounds of tea per year. Tea drinking fell off dramatically after the Boston Tea Party and the anger that the colonists felt toward King George and his tax.  Coffee started to become the replacement drink and, as one source put it that the "rebellion is undoubtedly responsible for America becoming a nation of coffee drinkers instead of tea drinkers."

The Longhunter story takes place between 1745 and 1768 placing it at the height of tea consumption. The Longhunters often carried tea as their drink of choice, although many also consumed a coffee made from chicory root and the"black drink" of the Indians made from the Yaupon Holly leaves.  
Two important varieties of tea were used during the time-frame of the books: Gunpowder Tea, a green tea where the leaves are rolled into little balls that resemble course black powder, and Bohea Tea (pronounced boo-hee) which was the most popular.  It was made of the scrap tea, broken orange pekoe, pekoe, and souchong dumped In a pile and then sifted.  

John drinks mostly Gunpowder tea which you can still buy to this day. Brew yourself a pot and taste what John had on the trail. Don't forget a good tea strainer since those little balls unroll when it is brewed!

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