Coffee or Tea?

by Roseanna M. White

I'm a coffee drinker. Oh, I love tea too, but when the day is new and I make my way out to the kitchen to start my morning, tea doesn't cut it. It's coffee who has my affections just then.

When traveling in England last autumn, I quickly learned that where the American culture has leaned heavily toward coffee in recent centuries, the same cannot be said for England. Though you can buy a cup of perked coffee from any restaurant or bakery, it's not made as often at home--and when it is, it's usually with a French press, which is lovely, but doesn't make a whole pot like American families might be accustomed to. Which meant that when I got home, one of the best parts was having my coffee again. ;-)

I knew from research, however, that coffee houses were actually all the rage in England of old. They are, in fact, responsible for its ever coming to America. So why did England then become the tea country, and America in love with coffee?

After doing some digging, it seems that the answer is two-fold.

First, England--though tea, hot chocolate, and coffee were all introduced around the same time in England, and hence in America, the East India Company was in the tea business, and they began pushing to make tea king.

This went according to plan in England, but their plans for New World Domination were foiled by the disastrous Stamp Act in the American colonies. Though most of these taxes were repealed, the one on tea remained--which made the Americans, bolstered by their cries of "no taxation without representation," turn to other sources for tea--and to coffee.

Coffee houses and taverns have existed here since the 1600s, but it was the strife with England that made coffee the choice of many Americans. Which is curious, since the beans were shipped green and often arrived musty and damp and, well, kinda gross. Still, Americans preferred to drink what might be a rather noxious brew rather than buy tea from England.

New York's first coffee roaster opened in 1793, which led to a rash of such places. Coffee continued to gain dominance in America, though it wasn't for another hundred and fifty years that they finally turned to quality beans being grown in Central America. They launched a serious ad campaign in the 1950s that revolutionized coffee in America by introducing the "coffee break." Suddenly coffee was about quality, which led to the rise of such institution as Starbucks.

But the coffee industry we know today--be it trendy or eco-friendly, designer or instant--all has its roots in the American cry for independence. Without that, we'd likely be sitting every morning sipping our tea, as they do in England.

~*~

Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two small children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels and novellas, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her new British series. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to make their way into her novels…to offset her real life, which is blessedly boring. Learn more about her and her books at www.RoseannaMWhite.com.

COLONIAL COFFEE HOUSES IN WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA

With around 12,000 Starbucks, plus countless other coffee shops in the United States, it’s evident that Americans like their coffee. While coffee, tea, and chocolate all arrived in the colonies in the 17^th century, it wasn’t until the mid 18^th century when the British decided to tax tea that coffee drinking took off in a big way.

Tea was very popular in the American colonies in the 18^th century. When the British imposed taxes on tea, some feisty Bostonians revolted and dumped tea in the harbor. Citizens from all the colonies showed support and began boycotting tea, and coffee quickly became a new favorite beverage.

Coffee establishments began appearing in England in the 17th century and differed from taverns that offered liquor, food, lodging, and gambling. Coffee houses became a popular opportunity for gentlemen of all ranks and stations in life to gather and enjoy coffee, tea, and chocolate while discussing the news of the day. Women were not allowed in these male bastions. By the 1800’s there were said to be 3000 coffee houses in London alone, often with their own particular character.

Virginia, being the most English of the colonies, was not far behind in making coffee houses a popular destination for men to gather and discuss the events of the day. Williamsburg, then the capitol of Virginia, was the home to four known coffee houses, although not at the same time. With a population of 2,000, of which half were slaves, the city could only support one coffee house at a time. Fortunately there has been extensive research done to locate and identify the periods each of these establishments existed.

William Byrd II of Westover, a member of the Royal Governor's

Shield's Tavern

Council kept extensive journals. He identifies a coffee house from 1709 at the east end of Duke of Gloucester Street near the Capitol where he ate, drank, read newspapers and enjoyed cards.

The same gentleman noted another coffee house in the 1740’s. Later, in the early 1750’s a coffee house was located at what is now Shield’s Tavern. Another coffee house believed to be R. Charlton's

R. Charlton's Coffeehouse

Coffeehouse was established in the 1760’s a few steps from the colonial Capitol. In 1765, this coffee house was the site of a hostile crowd confronting the Stamp Act tax collector, George Mercer. Fortunately Mr. Mercer was protected by the Royal Governor Francis Fauquier who

A View of the Capitol from
Charlton's Coffeehouse

happened to be seated with his council on the porch.

That is the last known Colonial Williamsburg coffee house as the Capitol was moved to Richmond in 1780.

Colonial Williamsburg, with an endowment from the Mars family, did extensive research and archaeological work to locate and rebuild the R. Charlton's Coffeehouse. The Armistead house, a Victorian home, rested on the original site of the coffee house. It was moved to a new location on nearby Henry Street. The 35’ by 35’ square two story coffee house was

Excavation of Charlton's Coffeehouse Foundation

reconstructed on the original foundation. By 2009 it had been restored to what it looked like at the time of the Revolution. 

When originally built, the kitchen was located downstairs. Two rooms were available to rent for private dinners or occasions, and one room was the room where citizens, whether they were the Burgesses or a local merchant or farmer, could gather and discuss current events over coffee or chocolate drinks.

Discussing politics with Patrick Henry

Like many other fascinating sites in Williamsburg, tours are available of the R. Charlton's Coffeehouse. You’ll be treated to a complimentary coffee, tea, or chocolate drink and you will be engaged in a spirited discussion of the news of the day. Just like our predecessors in the 1700’s.

For more information about coffee in Colonial America, see Elaine Marie Cooper's earlier post.   http://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2013/03/coffee-in-colonies.html

The Boston Tea Party: A December to Remember

There was a boatswain’s whistle, and in silence one group boarded the Dartmouth. The Eleanor and the Beaver had to be warped in to the wharf. Johnny was close to Mr. Revere’s heels. He heard him calling for the captain, promising him, in the jargon everyone talked that night, that not one thing should be damaged on the ship except only the tea, but the captain and all his crew had best stay in the cabin until the work was over.

Captain Hall shrugged and did as he was told, leaving his cabin boy to hand over the keys to the hold. The boy was grinning with pleasure. The ‘tea party’ was not unexpected.

Excerpt from Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

And thus began the most famous Tea Party in American history when the underground resistance group known as the Sons of Liberty dumped 90,000 pounds of tea into Boston Harbor on the 16^th of December, 1773. The group of dissenters, dressed up like Mohawk Indians, were spurred on by Samuel Adams as a protest against the Tea Act of 1773. This law, which was enacted by the British Parliament, gave the East India Tea Company a virtual monoply over tea sales in the colonies.

In the eyes of the Massachusetts colonists, who had already endured one tax after another, this was one tax too many. The efforts of Parliament to recoup monies lost in the French and Indian War had now backfired, as the Colonials believed their rights as British citizens were being lost one by one.

Resistance to the Tea Act was active throughout the colonies but the East India Tea Company proceeded to send 500,000 pounds of tea across the Atlantic in September, 1773. Due to pressure from local patriot groups in the cities of Charleston, New York and Philadelphia, shipments of tea from England were refused by the local merchants. But in Boston, several relatives of the Crown-appointed Governor Hutchinson ruled the marketplace and they did not concede to the local patriots who tried to send the tea back to England. The patriots refused to pay the tax on the cargo. But the Governor in Massachusetts insisted that the taxes be paid and the tea stay put.

  

The Sons of Liberty decided otherwise as 342 wooden crates holding tea leaves were hatcheted open in front of thousands of silent observers lining Griffin’s Wharf at midnight.  

 No one was injured in the protest and it is said that the rebels swept up the decks of the ship afterwards. Since the ships were actually owned by Americans, and not the British, the pseudo-Indians had no quarrel with the shipowners.

In The Boston Campaign, April 1775 – March 1776, Victor Brooks writes, “…when the ‘Mohawks’ in Boston responded to this direct challenge by dumping the hated tea in the harbor, each side correctly saw the event as a watershed in the history of Britain’s rule over the colonies and as a clear prelude to military confrontation between parliament and the American provinces.”

 It was just a little over a year later (April of 1775) when full-scale war broke out between the colonies and England. It was a conflict that lasted nearly eight years.

The people of Massachusetts and all the colonies soon acquired a taste for coffee.

The Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, in celebration of this occasion, allow costumed re-enactors to participate in throwing tea into the sea every year on December 16. Watch their video here.

Huzzah!

Coffee in the Colonies

“What if I brewed up some Bohea…in your coffeepot? Are you brave enough to try?”

Anna smirked. “I am desperate enough to try.”

                             Excerpt from Fields of the Fatherless (soon to be released)

Betsy and her sister-in-law, Anna, took a huge risk brewing up the Chinese black tea called Bohea (bu-ee). It was strictly forbidden in the colony of Massachusetts in 1775—so much so that neighborhood comitteemen were assignd to monitor private households to ensure that only coffee or herbal teas were served.

Anyone caught drinking the banned brew of tea taxed by England would be deemed a Tory. But drinking coffee was akin to declaring independence for America. Coffee was the preferred drink of the patriotic cause although many still desired the black or green tea that they had been accustomed to. Some, like Anna, used black tea like Bohea for headaches, so it was a real sacrifice to make the change. And some just liked the milder taste of tea.

But preferences aside, the popularity of coffee in America soared after the Boston Tea Party.

In fact, the party itself was planned and the details plotted out in a coffee house called The Green Dragon. It was in December of 1773 that over one hundred enraged patriots tossed cases of tea overboard from three ships into the murky Boston harbor. The tea boycott had begun.

But while coffee was suddenly in high demand, it had actually arrived in the colonies in the late 17^th century, at the same time as tea.

 Coffee originated in the Arab countries but live plants were transported to greenhouses in Holland in 1616. From there, the Dutch began to grow this popular bean in India and Java (now called Indonesia). Within a few years, the Dutch were the main suppliers of coffee to Europe.

The Holland connection brings up another interesting tidbit from my research. A mortar and pestle for “braying” coffee beans into powder was brought over on the Mayflower in 1620 by passengers William and Susanna White. The emigrants onboard the Mayflower had resided in Holland for a time before leaving for the New World. Thus, the first coffee may have arrived with the first colonists arriving at Plymouth, although there was no record of the beans actually carried as cargo onboard.

English coffeepot, Staffordshire transferware

According to Dennis Picard, historian at Storrowton Village Museum in West Springfield, Massachusetts, “coffee was shipped and purchased green, and the homeowner had to roast each batch either in a spider (a frying pan with legs) or a metal drum shaped roaster.” It was then ground with a mortar and pestle.

Crank coffee grinders began to be used in homes in the early part of the 19^th century.

The first literary reference to coffee consumption in North America is from 1668, when coffee houses were established in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and other cities. Often these coffee houses also served other beverages, such as tea, ale and cider.

A mention of coffee and tea is found in Shirley Glubock’s Home and Child Life in Colonial Days:

“In 1670, a Boston woman was licensed to sell coffee and chocolate, and soon coffee houses were established there. Some did not know how to cook coffee any more than tea, but boiled the whole coffee beans in water, ate them, and drank the liquid; and naturally this was not very good either to eat or drink.

At the time of the Stamp Act, when patriotic Americans threw the tea into Boston Harbor, Americans were just as great tea drinkers as the English. Coffee-drinking, first acquired in the Revolution, has also descended from generation to generation, and we now drink more coffee than tea. This is one of the differences in our daily life caused by the Revolution.”

Brittania ware Coffeepot

Just one of the many differences, indeed.

My favorite excerpt about coffee and the American Revolution was an incident recorded by Abigail Adams in 1778, and quoted in Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin:

“An eminent, wealthy, stingy merchant (also a bachelor) had a hogshead of coffee in his store, which he refused to sell…under six shillings per pound. A number of females, some say a hundred, some say more, assembled with a cart and trunks, marched down to the Warehouse and demanded the keys which he refused to deliver. Upon which one of them seized him by his neck and tossed him into the cart. Upon his finding no quarter, he delivered the keys when they tipped up the cart and discharged him; then opened the Warehouse, hoisted out the coffee themselves, put it into the trunks and drove off…a large concourse of men stood amazed silent spectators.”

I suppose the moral of that tale is, never stand between a woman and her coffee—especially during a Revolution!

 (Coffeepot photos courtesy of Storrowton Village Museum, West Springfield, Massachusetts)