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Timeline of tea in NYC

August 14, 2006

1650: The Dutch introduce several teas and tea traditions to New Amsterdam, which later becomes New York.

1670: Tea gardens make their debut in New York City

1700s: New York boasts two hundred tea establishments

1774: New York's most famous tea party occurs on April 22, 1774 when rebellious colonials tossed eighteen chests of that "pernicious British herb" into New York harbor to protest the tax on tea.

1859: The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opened on Vesey Street and grew into the world's largest chain store, the ancestor of today's A&P grocery.

1860: $8.3 million worth of imported tea was handled by New York merchants.

Early 1900s: "High" tea becomes an afternoon affair at ritzy hotels, including The Plaza in New York

1908: Tea merchant Thomas Sullivan of New York develops the concept of tea in a bag.

1926: The famed Russian Tea Room opens in Midtown.

2002: Musician Moby and former girlfriend Kelly Tisdale open Teany on Rivington Street in the Lower East Side, a vegetarian restaurant with more than 90 types of tea.

2002: The Russian Tea Room declares bankruptcy.