The Federal Tea Tasters: For 99 Years, the U.S. Government Paid People to Drink Tea—and It Took an Act of Congress to Make Them Stop

For nearly a century, the federal government employed professional tea tasters to determine whether imported tea was good enough for Americans. The program survived multiple presidents, inspired a Supreme Court decision, and required an act of Congress to abolish. Naturally, it took another 27 years to finish the paperwork.

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