Not for all the tea in Boston Harbor

Felicity and I plan to get together tonight to drink some hot chocolate in remembrance of the Boston Tea Party.

After Boston officials refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships on Dec. 16, 1773 and destroyed the tea by throwing all 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. The incident remains an iconic event of American history.

Those 342 chests contained 90,000 pounds (or 24,000,000 cups) of tea at two shillings per pound, which came to £9,000 -- or £888 thousand or $1,378,880.04 today!

The Boston Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement against the 1773 Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it was taxation without representation.

The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the start of the American Revolution. Parliament closed Boston's commerce in 1774 until the British East India Company had been repaid for the destroyed tea. Colonists responded with additional acts of protest and convened the First Continental Congress, which petitioned King George III for repeal of the acts.

The crisis escalated and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston on April 19, 1775.

So do you drink coffee or tea? Coffee has been the beverage of choice in the United States since the Boston Tea Party. On average, Americans drink about 0.75 pounds of tea a year, which equates to just under half a cup a day, whereas coffee drinkers in the United States consume 3.1 cups of coffee per day.

Momma messes with these statistics since she drinks at least eight cups of tea a day.