Boston Tea Kettle

Where can you fit eight boys and one full grown man? In the world’s largest tea kettle, of course.

In 1875, the Oriental Teashop held a contest to brew up attention for their company, asking the public to guess the capacity of the massive kettle that was cast in 1873 and hung outside their storefront.

The correct answer was over 227 gallons—that’s a lot of tea, even for the town made famous for its “tea party.” The boys and man also crawled out of the kettle to entertain the masses gathered for the event.

The giant ornament now hangs above Starbucks, a mildly appropriate memorial site just a short distance from where it used to hang.

Before this location was a Starbucks, it was a small cafe appropriately called “The Steaming Kettle.” If visitors carefully look at the outside wall of the building they find an old sign for the Steaming Kettle still hanging there.