Even the simple act of drinking tea was a statement on freedom.  At that time, Great Britain acted as the sole importer of legal tea to the American colonies.  While in Great Britain the British East India Company owned the monopoly on tea imports.  Put two and two together.  You have a widely popular product that can only be purchased through one place making tea very expensive.  The answer to this problem was smuggling illegal tea into both Great Britain and the American colonies.  Tea smuggling meant serious problems for the British East India Company, leaving them with a decline in consumers and an overstock of tea.  Not wanting the company to go bankrupt, due to loyalties and the money owed to the government, Great Britain created the Tea Act, allowing the company to sell tea directly to the American colonies at a radically reduced price.  Phineas will go into the Tea Act a bit later.  When ships from the British East India Company, stocked with tea, set sail for the colonies, meetings were held in Boston on steps to take.  This all leads up to the Tea Party.