Just my cup of tea! As Boston celebrates 250 years since taxes revolutionized its brew, JANE KNIGHT sets out to find the city’s best cuppa, digesting bits of history along the way

This was clearly no ordinary cup of tea. The liquid that flowed from the porcelain teapot was cough medicine pink and flowed around the large block of ice in my teacup, which resembled a tea chest.

Although one of the ingredients was cloudberry tea, it was steeped for two days with Bombay Sapphire gin, enhanced with lime juice and thyme, and then topped up with prosecco to create The Destruction of Tea – a cocktail with a kick.

This powerful treat, served in the new Coterie bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston, is named after the first term given to The Boston Tea Party, an event that sparked the American Revolution.

They collected more than a cup of it on Saturday, the 250th anniversary of the most famous tea party in history.

It was filled with processions and performances, along with the dumping of even more tea into Boston Harbor.

The festivities commemorated the night of December 16, 1773, when colonial men, fed up with being taxed for their tea, sneaked into three schooners in port, destroyed 342 tea chests and dumped 92,000 pounds of tea from the East India Company in the threw water. .

The cargo was valued at $1.5 million in today’s currency, and its destruction prompted George III to send troops across the Atlantic.

But the Tea Party hasn’t turned Bostonians off the drink: you can still enjoy an excellent cup of tea in the city, often accompanied by delicious afternoon tea.

In search of the best of them, my son and I set off on a tea trail, digesting bits of history along the way. Although Boston deals with its past, this city of 650,000 inhabitants – with a large number of students and business people – is far from boring. It’s also incredibly easy to walk around, taking in everything from the bustling harbor area to the chic Back Bay neighborhood.

We started at the Boston Tea Party Ships And Museum, whose two reconstructed boats we could see from the windows of our room at the Intercontinental Hotel.

Lively: Jane notes that the city is ‘incredibly easy to walk around as you take in everything from the bustling harbor area (above) to the chic Back Bay district’

Jane begins her tour at the Boston Tea Party Ships And Museum (pictured), whose two reconstructed boats she could see from the windows of her room at the Intercontinental Hotel

The excellent interactive museum features the only known surviving tea chest from that inauspicious night, used over the generations as a dollhouse, a container for kittens and for playing games (one is scribbled on the surface).

At the tea house we tried all five types of tea that were thrown overboard, including two green teas.

Although our guide, Priscilla, told us that “Young Hyson tea was the most expensive, and a favorite of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson,” I preferred the standard black tea, Bo-hea.

There are scones in the teahouse, but for a good afternoon stroll we walked to the Boston Public Library, the first large and free municipal library in America, with a chic tea room downstairs. Make sure you dress for this amazing celebration that, unusually, started with burrata and celery soup.

Boiling Point: December 16, 2023 marked the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party (pictured above), an event that sparked the American Revolution

Jane enjoys a Destruction of Tea cocktail (pictured) from the new Coterie bar at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston, named after the original term given to The Boston Tea Party

Fueled to learn, we head to Boston’s Freedom Trail, which chronicles the fascinating story of the events leading up to the Tea Party. We visit the meeting house where the Bostonians decided to perform, and Granary Burying Ground, where the grave of a certain Paul Revere is located. He made a midnight trek of 12 miles on horseback to Lexington to warn revolutionary leaders Sam Adams and John Hancock that the British were on their way.

The graves of Hancock and Adams are also located in the cemetery, opposite the Beantown Pub. “They say this is the only place you can sink a cold Sam Adams while looking at another cold Sam Adams,” joked our guide Jeremiah Poope (“Yes, that’s my real name – you can imagine the fun I had at school.’)

It was in Lexington, the site of a skirmish between British and colonial forces on April 19, 1775, that the first shot of the American Revolutionary War was fired.

Janes bases herself at the Intercontinental Hotel (pictured), close to the Boston Tea Party Ships And Museum

Jane devours warm lobster tails at Smith & Wollensky restaurant (above)

Minutes away from the green where the fighting took place, and where seven of the first eight men killed by the British are buried, we settled into rocking chairs on the veranda of the charismatic Inn at Hastings Park – an estate of Relais & Chateaux – to enjoy even more tea, along with chocolate dipped strawberries, cannoli, blueberry scones and an array of tempting sandwiches and cakes. Even better, this tea is served early, from 11:30am, which meant we could consider it brunch.

In Boston, you have to leave room for lobster—I devoured warm lobster tails at Smith & Wollensky and a spicy lobster pasta at Contessa on the rooftop, while looking out at the golden dome of the Massachusetts State House.

It wasn’t always this way. As Jeremiah told us, in Puritan times you could be flogged, fined, and put in chains if you ate lobster in public.

‘To the Puritans it was a giant cockroach from the sea. Only the prisoners ate it.’

Fortunately, you can now enjoy lobster rolls anytime, anywhere, including during afternoon tea. They were featured at our favorite stop, One Dalton Street at Four Seasons, with its beautifully crafted cakes and delectable sandwiches.

And not only that: this delicacy was also accompanied by champagne, liqueur and of course plenty of tea.