The Name

Charles Townshend was the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliament prior to the Revolutionary War. He authored the Townshend Acts of 1767, imposing a tax on colonial tea imports, among other items. Outcry began in the colonies and many taxes were repealed. However the Tea Act was upheld, essentially giving a monopoly on the sale of tea in the colonies to the despised East India Trading Company.

This led to widespread boycotts and ultimately The Boston Tea Party, in which the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, tried poorly to disguise themselves as Native Americans, but succeeded in dumping 342 chests of perfectly delicious tea (worth £18,000 in 1767) into Boston Bay. This lead to anti-tea sentiment and sowed the seeds of a coffee culture.

We like the idea of using the name of the man responsible for tea’s underdog status.