At that time (1773), who drank more tea – the Americans or the British?
Everything Stops for Tea The Americans. Before that little fracas took place in Boston, the Americans drank ‘way more tea than the British. The British, seemingly, preferred coffee in those days. After the taxation protests, the Americans stopped drinking tea as an act of defiance and patriotism. As a payback, the Brits reduced their consumption of coffee. It all seems pretty childish to me, but that’s probably the reason why more coffee than tea is imbibed in the U.S., (a good thing, since I’ve never had a good cup of tea in the States yet!), while the Brits are now known as tea connoisseurs and their coffee is just plain awful! When did the British start drinking tea?Everything Stops for Tea Around 1662. When the Portuguese princess Catherine, daughter of the Duke of Braganza, married Charles II in 1662, she introduced the English to the enjoyable tradition of a cuppa (only tea was drunk out of small bowls back then). Portuguese explorers had brought back tea from Japan as early as 1
