George Washington, like most of his contemporaries, regularly drank and purchased tea throughout his lifetime. The culture of tea consumption was supported by specialized objects purchased to serve tea, whether to those living in the home or to hosted guests. The types of tea and how it was served often varied based on class. Tea consumption was so central to those living in the British colonies that its taxation in 1773 led to strife among American colonists, and ultimately the Boston Tea Party. Although boycotting tea became an act of defiance against the crown and a means to support the patriot cause, it remained a popular drink after the American Revolution. Washington continued to drink and acquire tea, and his last known purchase was for one pound of Imperial tea the year before his death.1
George Washington's first recorded order for tea dates to December of 1757, when he wrote to England seeking "6 lb. best Hyson Tea" and "6 lb. best Green Ditto."2 Living in colonial Virginia, Washington, of course, drank tea prior to placing that order. Only about a month before, sick, and having arrived back at Mount Vernon from the frontier to find his sister-in-law out of the house, the young bachelor sent a note to his neighbor Sally Cary Fairfax requesting some foodstuffs to get him through his illness. This included "a Pound, or a smaller quantity if you can't spare that, of Hyson Tea."3
Washington reportedly served tea to an ailing guest as a remedy for coughing. Elkanah Watson visited the Washingtons at Mount Veron in January of 1785. Watson recollected: "I was extremely oppressed with a severe cold and excessive coughing, contracted by the exposure of a harsh whiter journey. He [George Washington] pressed me to use some remedies, but I declined doing so. As usual after retiring, my coughing increased. When some time had elapsed, the door of my room was gently opened, and on drawing my bed-curtains, to my utter astonishment, I beheld Washington himself, standing at my bed-side, with a bowl of hot tea in his hand. I was mortified, and distressed beyond expression. This little incident, occurring in common life with an ordinary man, would not have been noticed; but as a trait of the benevolence and private virtue of Washington, it deserves to be recorded."4
The Washingtons used several varieties of tea throughout their time at Mount Vernon, including Bohea, Congo, Green, Gunpowder, Hyson, and Imperial. Among the specialized objects purchased to serve tea in the Washington household imported from England, France, and China, were: tea boards, tea caddies, tea chests, tea china, tea cups, a pewter tea equipage, a copper tea kettle with chafing dish, a tea kitchen, tea pots, tea sets, silver tea spoons, tea tables, and a silver-plated tea urn.5 Individuals enslaved at Mount Vernon also possessed tea wares, although it is possible that they were utilized as all-purpose drinking vessels. Among the furnishings, one visitor found in a cabin on one of Mount Vernon's outlying farms were, "A very bad fireplace, some utensils for cooking, but in the middle of the poverty some cups and a teapot."6
Guests at Mount Vernon recalled tea being served with breakfast, which was customary. Benjamin Henry Latrobe recorded in his journal that, "Breakfast was served up with the usual Virginian style. Tea, Coffee, and cold and broiled Meats."7 Breakfast was generally eaten at Mount Vernon around seven in the morning during the summer or at seven-thirty in winter. George Washington's habitual meal, according to one of Martha Washington's granddaughters, consisted of "three small mush cakes (Indian meal) swimming in butter and honey" and "three cups of tea without cream.''8 In January of 1802, two years after George Washington's death, Manasseh Cutler and his friends were served a specially prepared breakfast by an enslaved cook late one morning at Mount Vernon. After describing the foods on the table, the minister noted, "At the head of the table was the tea and coffee equipage, where she [Martha Washington] seated herself, and sent the tea and coffee to the company."9 The Washingtons also used the piazza facing the Potomac River for afternoon and evening teas, especially in the summer time while hosting guests.
Originally researched by Mary V. Thompson Research Historian George Washington's Mount Vernon
Notes:
1. "Bennett & Watts...Contra, 31 March 1798," Mount Vernon Farm Ledger (bound photostat, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association), 98.
2. “George Washington to Thomas Knox, 30 December 1757,” Founders Online, National Archives.
3. “George Washington to Sarah Cary Fairfax, 15 November 1757,” Founders Online, National Archives.
4. Men and Times of the Revolution; or, Memoirs of Elkanah Watson ed., Winslow C. Watson (New York: Dana and Company, 1856), 244.
5. George Washington to Thomas Knox, 30 December 1757," The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, Vol.5 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia), 76; "Cash...Contra," 28 February 1774, Ledger B (bound photostat, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association), 105a; "Washington's Household Account Book, 1793-1797" Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 31, Nos. 1-3 (1907), 179; Ibid., "23 May 1796," 183.
6. Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Under Their Vine and Fig Tree; Travels Through America in 1797-1799, 1805, ed. Metchie J.E. Budka (Elizabeth, New Jersey: Grassman Publishing Company, 1965), 100.
7. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, "July 1796" The Virginia Journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, 1795-1798, Vol. 1 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977), 171
8. "Nelly Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 23 February 1823" (typescript, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association)
9. William Parker Cutler and Julia Perkins Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. By His Grandchildren, Vol. 2 (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Company, 1888), 56.
Bibliography:
DeWitt, Dave. The Founding Foodies: How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine. Naperville: Sourcebooks, Inc., 2010.
Salinger, Sharon V. Taverns and Drinking in Early America. John Hopkins University Press, 2004.
McLeod, Stephen A. ed. Dining with the Washingtons: Historic Recipes, Entertaining, and Hospitality from Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 2011.
