I have written many posts on tea, but recently saw that over half of the USA consumes coffee on a regular basis. In fact, 63% of the population drinks coffee each morning, and only 47% drinks tea to get them started. Clearly, I need to discuss coffee more, for another way to look at these statistics, is that each day Americans alone consume 400M plus cups of coffee, or at least ~3C per day (1).
My last post on coffee was: Consume Coffee Healthily.
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USA Coffee History
The history of coffee in the USA is one that is integrated into a triplet of stories regarding 1) European Colonialism, 2) Global Slave Trade, and 3) the American Colonists fight for independence. I have tried to condense this rather large and complicated history to give a bit of the perimeter stories buzzing around the role of coffee in the colonized land. As a result, I skip over several interesting historical details in order to tell this story focused on coffee in the USA.
Additionally, the reason this post is published now, is that the USA has just commemorated the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 2023. The Boston Tea Party, as the national myth goes, was one of USAs most iconic events that essentially propelled colonists down the road to revolution. Paved, I would add, by drinking lots of coffee and scheming in coffee houses and taverns.
While the interweaving of coffee into this story was my own idea, several sites (2) have mentioned it in passing.
I relied on several others to expand my understanding of what really happened that fateful day.
Colonialism (1520s – 1620)
In terms of carving up the “new world,” Europeans acted as if no humans already occupied the land. With total disregard of the people already here, they divided up the “new world” without care or concern.
- DrupalLibrary: As the English, Spanish and Dutch began to explore and claim parts of North America, Jacques Cartier began the French colonization of North America in 1534. By the 1720’s the colonies of Canada, Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Louisiana that made up New France were well established.
- Britannica: In 1567 Spain built a fort in the Appalachian Mountains (3), but they had been in Southern and Central America for quite a while by then: The first European countries to begin colonizing the Americas were Spain and Portugal. Spain claimed and settled Mexico, most of Central and South America, several islands in the Caribbean, and what are now Florida, California, and the Southwest region of the United States.
- Meanwhile, the British founded many colonies primarily on the east coast (4), for example:
- 1587 the Plymouth Company established a settlement named Roanoke
- 1607 Captain John Smith founded the colony of Jamestown
- 1620 the Plymouth colony was established.
The British colonies were clustered on the Eastern coastline and became the political heart of the rebellion against the British. Critical to this story, is that when those British colonists first arrived:
- Their new colonies became part of an immense, global British trading network where colonists traded North American resources for, among other things, Asian tea, African sugar, cacao, and cotton (5), and West Indian coffee and sugar
- They continued, from 1607 forward, the practice of slavery and forced labor (6) of Indigenous Peoples and children
- The British officially (meaning documented) brought African enslaved people in 1619*
English Peoples and Tea
I want to make a quick note here about why so many historians think a certain way about the English love of tea, over coffee. Many think it all comes down to the Monarchy, governmental economics, and greed.
At that time, Britain did not trade with China, but Portugal did. In 1662, Catherine of Braganza (daughter of Portugal’s King John IV) was married to England’s King Charles II. When she arrived in England, among her dowry was tea, which she enjoyed daily. And is often the case with class, the top Queen is emulated by the other royals, then the rich, down to the richer poor people, to finally the poor. Thus tea spread in England.
For England, tea from India did not start arriving until a bit later, and while the Dutch were selling tea to England, it was at very high prices. So England made its move using their East India Company, a quasi-governmental agent that was given a monopoly over the tea industry in Britain and the Colonies. Since the government received funds from them, they were state protected and supported. Many claim that the consumption of tea was encouraged by the British government and Monarchy because of the revenue gained from taxing tea.
1700s British Taxes + Rules
Coffee and tea were available to the colonists, although tea was, by far, the preferred drink between the two. Even when, at that time, tea (per pound) was actually more expensive than coffee. Essentially, many colonists felt tea was a bit of the home country they brought with them to the “new” land.
- In 1728, Britain introduced coffee beans to Jamaica, where it was cultivated by enslaved Africans. Soon, that coffee became a staple commodity in the British Atlantic trade. But it often tasted terrible as people did not know how to prepare the green beans, nor prepare the drink.
What was happening in England politically was not far away in colonists’ minds, since they were ruled by that country, and supported by them as well. Over time, when daily concerns moved from basic survival to building towns, conversations moved from necessities, to discussions about British rule and taxes.
- The 1765 Stamp Act: which taxed paper products
- 1767 Townshend Act: taxed some specific imported goods, including tea
- 1773 Tea Act: named the British East India Company as the sole supplier of tea to the colonies
In response to these growing actions, some of the colonists started to coalesce around anger at Britain (although not necessarily the Monarch), claiming that they were being taxed without representation. Others, just wanted the tea to be unsold and returned to Britain. Thus, unlike the myths around the Boston Tea Party, there was no unified response among the colonists (7). Specifically, USHistory notes colonists in Philadelphia and New York turned the tea ships back to Britain. In Charleston the cargo was left to rot on the docks.
- Smithsonian: The protest actually centered on the Tea Act, which was a corporate tax break passed by the British Parliament. This act resulted in lowering the price of tea for the colonists.
- The Smithsonian quotes author Benjamin L. Carp (Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America) as saying that the real concern of the more revolutionary colonists was the chance that a price cut would cause colonists to go ahead and buy the cheap-but-taxed tea, thus giving up on the fundamental principle of no taxation without representation.
The Boston Tea Party
On the 16th December 1773, ~116 Colonialists violently raided 3 privately owned ships that were carrying large containers of tea. Some were members of a group (Sons of Liberty) that planned the raid (and were the ones who dressed as Native People), and some were said to have been caught up in the moment (sound familiar). These men destroyed all the privately owned tea. Many years later, this eventually became known as the Boston Tea Party, but some of the details have been blurred into myth, for instance:
- AllThingsLiberty: The Boston Tea Party destroyed private, not British ships in the process of breaking the tea containers and dumping tea leaves overboard. These three ships were in fact partially or fully owned by American colonists.
- AllThingsLiberty: This was a violent destruction of private property, and although no people were physically harmed at that time, there were intense intimidation efforts weeks to months before. Bostonians intimidated importers and customs officers, threw rocks and shattered windows, printed death threats against the tea consignees, surrounded them at their homes and places of business, refused to allow the governor to give them armed protection, and effectively exiled them to a fortified island in the harbor.
- WaPo recently noted, you could rightly describe the event as: A horde of White men disguised themselves as Native Americans — coppering their faces and donning headdresses in the same tradition that would lead to blackfaced minstrel shows decades later — to commit seditious conspiracy and destroy private property. The riotous mob trespassed on three ships and destroyed goods worth nearly $2 million in today’s money — all because they didn’t want to obey a duly passed law.
So there are two ways to see this historical event: 1) colonists were acting defiantly due to a righteous response to “taxation without representation” democratic ideals, or 2) colonists were acting as common criminals hiding behind racist face paint (WaPo), hoping to blame others for their own acts of unrestrained anger and vandalism over decisions they did not like.
Coffee Houses Fermented Revolution
Months later, Britain responded to that tea destruction by passing the inflammatory Coercive Acts of 1774. That parliamentary move really caused colonists grave concern, but of itself did not lead to Colonists drinking more coffee than tea. There were many factors that influenced this change.
- Economically, during most of Colonial life, coffee was cheaper than tea
- Trade-wise, when Britain made tea cheaper, coffee was still easier to import
- Coffee was deemed a healthy drink that provided more “awakeness” than tea (i.e. caffeine) which was considered more medicinal (8)
- Politically, drinking tea meant you favored British rule, coffee implied you were for self-rule
- Tea was considered feminine or genteel, coffee was more robust, masculine (9)
The WhiteHouseHistory describes that there was a clear turning point where the colonies turned from British teahouse culture, to coffee houses. That makes sense, because you had to know how to make coffee from those green beans, and it required special equipment. Rather quickly coffee houses (or taverns) became the most common places for coffee consumption and were central to male socialization and political dialogue (10) since women were not allowed to attend.
It became important that over time the colonists distanced themselves from the British. To become a people, they used coffee and coffee houses to create a separate cultural identity. Thus they began to live their own political, economic and social lives in ways not British, but distinctly (at that time) as Americans.
Eventually the tensions became so taut the American War of Independence exploded on April 19, 1775 and lasted until September 3, 1783.
Wrap Up
From the 1700s to now, coffee is and has been imported in ever greater quantities from various global sources. Additionally, more coffeehouses have been opened than anyone then could have imagined. But what I find so fascinating is that this drink actually played a part in creating the USA, as we know it today; both good a bad.
Although this is not relevant to this story, I also find interesting to think of the many actions leading up to the War of Independence as swirling with the core political and social conflicts that we still live with today. If you read carefully, the violent actions taken then could have been in today’s news.
In case you are curious, currently the coffee I prefer to make at home is Peace Coffee.** It has a roast that reminds me of Peet’s Coffee, but tastes rich without the acidity, and I absolutely support their decisions on sustainability, equity, and community.
—Patty
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*BattlesFieldOrg: These Africans were likely from the Angolan kingdom of Ndongo, captured by Angolan warriors allied with the Portuguese.I think I will do a post on just what food and cooking techniques enslaved peoples brought to the USA.
** Peace Coffee send me some of their coffee to try and I loved it. In fact, this was the coffee I served all my guests and family over the holidays; and will be my home brew.
