CooksShopHere- House Blend Tea: Joseph Hawley's Smugglers Blend

Black

Oolong

Joseph Hawley's Smugglers Blend™
Our rendition of a "smokey" Russian Caravan

China and South Asian teas
Fully and semi-oxidized tea
Disparate and various leaf styles
Earthy, robust flavor
Dense, slightly smoky aroma
Dark amber liquor tinged crimson

4 oz	8 oz	16 oz
12.00 Buy	24.00 Buy	48.00 Buy

Illustration courtesy of: theamericanrevolution.org

In December 1773, a band of sixty American patriots calling themselves the Sons of Liberty dressed as Mohawk Indians and boarded three sailing ships docked in Boston Harbor. These ships - the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver - were owned by the British East India Company, and had arrived loaded with cargos of tea for the colonists.

Frustrated and angry over years of taxation imposed upon them by England for items such as tea, sugar, glass, paper, coffee and wine, colonists rebelled in 1767 by boycotting English goods. Colonial merchants supported this boycott, and began smuggling ‘contraband tea ’ from Holland, which imposed no tax on the colonists.

The smuggled tea began to cut deeply into the sales of British tea. In an attempt to empty their warehouses in England of un-sold tea, the three ships in Boston harbor had been sent to reclaim the colonial tea market. The British had devised a scheme to sell this tea at a very low cost, which would put the colonial smugglers out of business. But, as the colonists quickly realized, it would also make them vulnerable once again to‘ taxation without representation’ from England.

The time had come for the patriots to decry ‘enough ’ to the British. On December 16th, 1773 a group of over 5,000 townspeople gathered at the Old South Meeting House to request that the three ships turn around and return to England. When the Governor of Massachusetts refused to do this, and demanded that the colonists accept the shipment of tea, the patriots, led by Samuel Adams, boarded the ships late that night and seized all 342 chests of tea, dumping them one by one into Boston Harbor.
This act of rebellion by the colonists, which came to be known as the Boston Tea Party, released smoldering feelings of resentment toward England. Pressing for independence and self-rule, the colonists stood their ground and fought for their freedom against England in the Revolutionary War of 1775.

As a new nation was about to be born from these troubled times, Major Joseph Hawley, of Pudding Lane, Northampton, was heavily involved in hatching plans with Samuel Adams and John Hancock for the impending rebellion against England. Joseph Hawley was a noted lawyer, town clerk, selectman and representative to the General Court in Boston. As a staunch radical and firebrand in the cause for independence, Hawley often led the Town Meetings in Boston. It is documented that in 1768 he brought home to Northampton two pounds of smuggled tea: one pound for his family and one for his cousin.

To salute the efforts of Joseph Hawley in the fight for freedom we have created this special blend of tea. In formulating this tea, our goal was to replicate as best as possible the style and flavor of the tea that was being smuggled from Holland. We have researched existent historic documents of the Smith and Van Berchem Tea Company formerly of Amsterdam, one of several Dutch tea companies in operation during this period. From these documents, we gleaned insight into the teas they were importing from China at that time.
With the rebuke of the English traders by the colonists following the Boston Tea Party, Dutch traders were able to capture tea sales in New England. Despite the fact that the Boston Tea Party was the pivotal point that turned many colonists into staunch coffee drinkers, tea remained popular.

Our tea blend is an historically correct rendition of the dark, leafy tea blends that the Chinese sent to the west from Canton during this time, and the tea that Joseph Hawley exercised his independence to buy and smuggle back to Northampton.

Use 1 generous teaspoon per 6 oz of water
We recommend a 3-4 minute steeping for our Joseph Hawley's Smugglers Blend
The water temperature should be 190˚ - 200˚ F