Blog
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Memorial Day
"If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of...
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The Origins of the Tea Brick
Estimated to be formed around 350 A.D., tea bricks have become a part of Chinese and European culture throughout the ages. Before tea bricks where introduced to Europe, tea...
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Cocoa and Cacao Shell Tea
Charleston, 843-722-3842, www.birlant.com. As far back as 1556, when an unknown European noted that drinking chocolate was the “most wholesome and substantial of any food or beverage in the world,...
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The Origins of Earl Grey Tea
The origin of “who first put leaf to water” is completely unknown to culinary historians. Before the mid-nineteenth century, botanists failed to decipher tea’s formula; however, many tales...
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Transcript - South Carolina Gazette, November 1774
The South Carolina Gazette reported on the dramatic confrontation between the colonists and British sea captain Samuel Ball, an agent of the British East India Company.Full transcript of the...
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Charles Town’s 2nd Tea Party, November 3, 1774
The “Bay is a more dangerous Navigation than the open Sea,” wrote the Charles-Town native Henry Laurens on January 21, 1774 in a letter to his son John, of the...
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Revolution in Charleston: 1769 Boycott of Imported British Goods
The revenue acts enacted by the British government on the American colonies, namely the Townshend Acts of 1767, did not affect the merchants of Charles-Town equally. Taxes were felt more...
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Charles Town’s First Tea Party: December 3, 1773
By the 1770’s, tea trading was a vital industry in colonial America. Parliament’s Townshend Duties tax began to put a strain on the colonists’ use of tea as a...
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Colonial American tea caddies, teapots, and tea accessories
On a colonial American tea table, one would find an assortment of the following tea accoutrements—the teapot, tea cosy, tea urn, tea samovar, tea kettle, tea caddies, tea spoons,...
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Tea as a measure of social status in colonial times
Beginning in the 1690’s, preparing, serving, and drinking tea was a ceremonial act that was woven into the daily life of the more wealthy colonists. For those who could afford...
