TEA! January 28, 1768 at the Colden Store, Coldengham, New York

Thursday January 28, 1768
Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.

Tea

Today was another busy day for the store. There were twenty-two shoppers purchasing 58 items. The day was clear, but very cold. Deep snow from Monday night's storm still covered homes and fields.

You can display the shoppers and the items they purchased via the on-line database. [Search for 1786-01-28; to see the items... search for the Daybook pages of 179-, 180- and 181-]

This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for more of an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.

Two of the customers purchased tea. Tea was a very popular item despite its cost. It sold for 7 shillings per pound or about a days wages. In the prior five months, Colden had sold over 160 pounds of tea in over 200 different transactions. Tea was such a money making import that the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury listed its going price in the top banner on its first page of every issue.

In the issue published on July 25, 1768, 250 years ago, the "Price-Current in New York" for Bohea Tea was "4s 9d." Bohea indicates that this tea was a dark tea, likely sourced from the Fujian region of China.

The price in New York also gives us an idea of the mark-ups Colden needed to pay for his shipping costs to Newburgh, his carting expences from the docks to his store, and for other overheads such as his clerks. At a store price of 7s his mark-up was 2s 3d or about 47%.

Coffee was not as popular despite being one quarter of the cost of tea at 1s 9d per pound. In the prior five months Colden sold about 30 pounds of coffee in about the same number of transactions.

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As evening fell, the winds picked up. The New York Journal (February 4, 1768 issue) would later report that on this evening it was "extremely cold" and the ground was "deep covered with snow." A "violent wind" arose out of the northwest and drove a ferry from New Jersey into shallow waters near Staten Island where it sank.  Nine men crawled through a freezing marsh to a small island.  Seven survived to be rescued the next morning. Most of those lost toes, fingers, or ears to frostbite. Hopefully the Colden Store shoppers were in their homes sipping tea.

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