It's often said the the Tea Act/Boston Tea Party was the point where Americans switched from tea to coffee, and never looked back. Is there evidence that this was really an inflection point in American culture and preferences?

by SnortingCoffee

It feels like one of those explanations that seems nice after the fact, but in reality is mostly unrelated.

SnortingCoffee

Well according to this, coffee from Brazil and the Caribbean became cheaper to import than tea around the same time, and that's when/why Americans began to prefer coffee:

https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/11/7-myths-boston-tea-party

I don't have access to their source online, but I might have to check with my local library:

Michelle Craig McDonald and Steven Topik, “Americanizing Coffee: Refashioning a Consumer Culture,” in Alexander Nützenadel and Frank Trentmann, eds., Food and Globalization: Consumption, Markets and Politics in the Modern World (New York: Berg, 2008), 109–27.