The Tea Dumped in the Boston Tea Party Was Chinese, Not British
The 342 chests of tea thrown into Boston Harbor in 1773 contained Chinese tea imported by the British East India Company, not tea grown in Britain.
About this fact
During the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773, American colonists dumped 342 chests of tea worth over $1 million in today's money. However, this wasn't British tea - it was premium Chinese tea imported by the British East India Company. The tea included Bohea (a black tea), Congou (another black tea), and Souchong (a smoky black tea) - all varieties from China's Fujian province. Britain had no tea plantations of its own at this time; they were middlemen trading Chinese tea to American colonies. The irony is that the colonists were protesting British tax policies by destroying Chinese products. The act wasn't about rejecting tea itself, but about rejecting 'taxation without representation' - many colonists continued drinking smuggled Dutch tea.