Curious about George …

Do you ever think about the fact that Americans have been drinking tea for a long, long time? I remember learning a few years ago that the father of our country was a tea drinker, and for some reason that surprised me. (I believe I first read that here, in a book about a great English family of tea drinkers.)

This week, I was doing a little research on Washington and came upon even more information on our president's tea-drinking habits courtesy of the Mount Vernon website. I learned:

• Washington's first recorded order of tea was in 1757.

• According to the website, "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." (They sure sound like tea lovers to me!)

• The slaves at Mount Vernon also had teawares, though it's noted that these may have been all-purpose drinking vessels, and one visitor to an outlying farm at Mount Vernon found in the slave quarters "some cups and a teapot."

• According to a granddaughter of Martha Washington, the president's "habitual meal" consisted of "three small mush cakes (Indian meal) swimming in butter and honey" and "three cups of tea without cream."

If you love this sort of tea history as much as I do, be sure to check out the Mount Vernon website for yourself!