Would you risk jail for a cup of tea?

Haha fascinating indeed. It’d be quite different experiencing this as a consumer vs. smuggler or seller buying from the smuggler. Personally, I must admit I’d value my freedom a bit more.

It wasn’t just in Britain that they drank tea brought over by smugglers, in colonial America tea from smugglers was often more popular than the official brew although I don’t know how much the tax was.