As 1773 was drawing to a close, an iconic event in the history of North America took place. Britain had been collecting taxes in its North American colonies on a great number of food products, including tea, yet not giving anything in return, not even parliamentary representation. This situation outraged the colonists who organised protests along the Eastern Coast, which culminated on 16 December when “the sons of freedom” marched to the Boston port and threw overboard a newly arrived shipment of tea into the sea. The 45 ton-shipment was worth a small fortune – around 10,000 pounds at the time.

After the incident, while the sea was brimming with soggy tea for days, the American revolution was gaining momentum in 13 colonies, a revolution that finally led to independence and the birth of the United States of America in 1783. This event gave a very bad name to the traditional English tea. Naturally, alternative drinks had to be found. Tea’s misfortune was coffee’s fortune – and also benefited another plant which grows all over the world – goldenrod.

An infusion made with goldenrod, or solidago, which became known in America as the “tea of freedom”, was massively popular and was exported even to China. Actually, goldenrod has a very interesting trading history. In the 12th century, the Egyptian Vizier Saladin, who fought Richard the Lion Heart in the 3rd Crusade, believed that goldenrod had good healing properties. Via the Middle East, goldenrod’s good name reached England where it was included in the herbal treasury in Elizabethan times. It is interesting that the English had paid a lot of gold for this plant in the Middle East, until they finally realised that it grew in abundance in English wilderness too.

Goldenrod grows everywhere. It was used by American Indians and was also part of Greek mythology. Astraea, the virgin goddess in ancient Greece, fleeing from the wickedness of humanity, ascended to heaven to become the constellation Virgo which can be seen twinkling in the sky on a clear night. The moral decline of humanity was punished by a flood; after the flood waters receded only mud was left behind. Astraea’s tears of compassion are fated to have watered a seed of a golden-flowered plant, a symbol of faith in a better future – goldenrod: Solidago virgaurea herba.