Coffee—The Patriotic Drink
Without coffee, the 4th of July might never have happened.
America’s first major act of rebellion was the 1773 Boston Tea Party when patriots, led by Samuel Adams, first boycotted tea and then dumped tons of it into the harbor to protest Britain’s Tea Act. It was a strike against taxation without representation, and it started the colonies down the path to the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But our forefathers needed a caffeinated replacement—and they found it in coffee. With the colonists determined to cut off the demand for tea, coffeehouses became a symbol of the revolt. The Green Dragon, Boston’s most celebrated coffeehouse, was given the honorary title “The Headquarters of the Revolution.” In fact, the first place the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to the public was in—you guessed it—a coffeehouse! So when you have your morning coffee this Independence Day, why not make it BCCR’s Freedom roast, and raise your cup to those brave coffee drinkers who supported the U.S.A.!