On this, the Fourth of July, we thought it might be fun to explain why our country – which started as a colony of tea-loving England – now drinks far more coffee than tea. (Fun fact: tea is by far the more popular beverage worldwide, with three cups of tea consumed for every one cup of coffee.)
Yet in America, we love our coffee and often pass on a cup of tea: on average, each of us drinks the equivalent of 8 ounces of coffee a day, but only one-third as much tea.
Yet this wasn’t always the case. We are a country born of England, which loved – and still adores – its tea. What happened?
The Boston Tea Party.
First, we need to understand that we never didn’t drink coffee in the U.S.: tea as well as coffee were very popular here in Colonial times. Yet many Colonists felt the Tea Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1773, violated their right to “no taxation n without representation,” believing that they should be taxed only by their own elected representatives and not by a parliament thousands of miles away.
Angry Colonists threw the tea cargo of three British vessels into Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, considered by almost all historians as a precipitating event of the American Revolution. Tea boycotts followed, meaning Colonists turned to other beverages to slake their thirst, such as herbal teas and (drumroll) coffee.
The tea boycott wasn’t weak: future president John Adams called it a “traitor’s drink.” Tea was so associated with Britain that Colonists felt drinking it was a sign of support for the King and boycotting it was akin to boycotting all of Britain.
Thus, a New Habit Was Born
The boycott “lasted” about 10 years (from 1773 to roughly 1783, when the Revolutionary War ended), and the taste for tea waned in that decade while the love of coffee grew.
Jump to today and while many of us do drink tea (about half of us drink at least one cup a day, consuming 84 billion servings of tea in 2016 alone), we’re a nation of coffee lovers: 54 percent of Americans 18 years and older drink coffee every day, drinking an average of 3.1 nine-ounce cups each day. We spend $40 billion on the black brew each year.
So raise your coffee mug this 241st Fourth of July and make a toast to our forefathers and foremothers. Naturally, we hope Ubean Coffee will be your brew of choice as we celebrate our nation’s freedom. Contact an independent Ubean distributor near you.