Boston Tea Party

Boston 1775's post about the Boston Tea Party reminded me of a learning experience I had in the last few years. When I was a child and heard about the Boston Tea Party, I just always assumed that in those crates were a bunch of tea bags. I didn't really think they were in little Lipton boxes or anything inside the crate, but I did assume that the tea was in bags. I don't know why I assumed that because I remember that my grandmother always made tea using loose tea and an aluminum acorn-shaped tea ball infuser. As I got older, I realized that tea probably wasn't in the bags so I assumed it was loose. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine and I were touring an historic home when we were shown a tea brick. The one we saw was more like the 2nd and 3rd photos on the entry than the first. The docent explained that this was the same type of tea that had been used in the Boston tea party. Both of us were rather surprised. We'd never seen such a brick. We were allowed to hold it, and believe me, both of us examined it rather closely. I no longer envision tea bags floating in Boston Harbor. Now I see the staining of the harbor with those bricks that may have sunk or floated before finally being "used up."