Taste of the Colonies Trio

Taste of the Colonies Trio - A Sampling of Tea, Coffee and Cacao from the Colonial American Era In colonial times the pubs and coffee houses served ale, tea, coffee, and drinking chocolate. Plans for the Revolution were hatched over these tables. Tea, coffee, and cacao were exotic and expensive imports.  Tea became a craze, but coffee was widely consumed and drinking chocolate was also common, especially among the colonies of Spain towards Mexico.   Colonial Bohea tea, (pronounced “Boo-hee” - Ukers 510), was by far the largest tea import during colonial times. Sometimes called Bohea Souchong or Lapsang Bohea, the blend originated in China with trade to the British and Dutch East India Companies. It was so popular that the word bohea became the slang term for tea. The blend varied wildly, consisting of broken orange pekoe, pekoe, and souchong dumped in a pile and then sifted, typically the scrap tea of lower quality leaves, but was considered high quality by the colonists. Notes:  Smoky