Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum

This is what the tea looked like that was dumped into the Boston harbor

Front

Compressed tea.

Back

This plank could roughly last someone a year. Often bought in sections, one would shave off the compressed tea into a pot/kettle.

Enhanced Front

Image to depict "Asia"

Loose leaf tea, of the Bohea variety.  This is how tea would have been transported to colonial America.

Sam Adams, and Lendall Pitts at the entrance to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum!

This is the approximate size of a "half-chest" of tea.  Higher end teas, such as the Hyson green tea would be transported in chests of this size.  There are five varieties of tea floating around at the time period: Bohea, Souchong, Congou, Singlo, and Hyson.

You can see that the tea chest is lined with lead foil to keep out moisture.  The tea is not stored in brick form, but as loose leaf tea.

You can see the Brig Beaver in the background here.  The Beaver is one of three vessels that was involved in the destruction of the tea.

This is a list of the men that boarded the three tea ships, and destroyed the detested weed.