Why do many Americans drink coffee and many British people drink tea? Because Americans boycotted tea before, during, and after the War of Independence and because the British government gained more money from taxing tea.
The two countries both started as polar opposites and have ended up as polar opposites. Tea was more popular than coffee in the early days of America, but now coffee is more popular. Coffee was more popular than tea after the 1600s, but now tea is more popular than coffee.
Let’s look at Britain first. Coffee and tea were both unknown in Britain until the 1600s. Coffee drinking started in Africa and slowly spread up through the Middle East and throughout the Ottoman Empire. It arrived in Southern Europe in the mid-1500s and was introduced into Britain in about 1600 by the Dutch. There was a demand for it and a large number of coffee shops sprang up to meet the need. The British government started to grow coffee in their colonies and coffee growing spread. It was a very popular drink and people liked it as much for its taste and effect as they did for the environment of the coffee shop. Within a few decades, there were thousands of coffee shops in Britain.
Tea was introduced into Britain almost half a century after coffee. The tea drunk in Asia was known about, but it was not sold in Britain. In 1650 it was introduced to Britain and Thomas Garway holds the distinction of being the first person to sell tea as a drink in his coffee shop. It was such a novel drink that he had to explain what it was in a pamphlet that he gave out with the tea. Tea was generally sold as a medicine and as being good for the health, but it was very expensive and only really drunk by the wealthy. Tea was often sold at coffee shops, but it wasn’t as popular. The first tea shop was not opened until 1706, and this was Thomas Twining’s shop.
Towards the middle of the 18th century, the East India Company started to trade with China and then started to grow tea in India. The supply increased and the price decreased. More and more middle class and working class people were able to afford tea, but drinking tea had become associated with the upper class so it was a very respectable drink. In 1700 it had been considered foreign, but by the end of the century, it was considered a very British drink. Tea started to outperform coffee because the price of coffee had become unstable. As well as that, the East India Company pushed as much tea into the British market as they could. The government supported them because of the tax revenue. By the 19th century, tea was far more popular than coffee.
The USA is the reverse of this. Dutch settlers took tea to their colonies in America in early 1600. It became the most popular drink in the American colonies. The tea was imported by the Dutch East India Company. When the British took over all of the colonies, their East India Company wanted a share of the action and they started to import tea. The tea was imported from China, and it was a very lucrative business for the East India Company. However, by 1773, the East India Company was suffering severe losses. The British government wanted to support it so they passed the Tea Act, giving the East India Company a monopoly in the American colonies. This made tea from the East India Company cheaper, but it harmed many American tea import businesses. It culminated in the Boston Tea Party where a large amount of British tea was thrown off ships. This led to Britain retaliating and, before long, war was declared.
After this, Americans stopped drinking tea. It became known as a traitor’s drink and was associated with Britain, the country America was now at war with. During the War of Independence, there was a boycott of tea and people started to drink more coffee. By the time the war ended, people had grown more used to coffee and tea was still associated with Britain, the enemy, and it was never able to make a comeback. America has remained a nation of coffee drinkers. And this is what I learned today.
Photo by Chevanon Photography: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-performing-coffee-art-302899/
https://9dragonstea.com/history-of-tea/history-of-tea-in-america/
https://www.goldenmoontea.com/blogs/tea/106692871-why-most-americans-drink-coffee-not-tea
https://www.teabloom.com/blog/5-reasons-coffee-is-more-popular-than-tea-in-america/