Mr Kingston and Mr Lewis split endorsements from tea-party groups, with Mr Kingston garnering support from the Tea Party Patriots and Mr Lewis winning the endorsement of the Tea Party Express—and, in the best revolutionary tradition, the contempt of the other group.
There is a cupcake of the day (we split an Earl Grey tea-flavored treat with butter-cream icing), but keep your fingers crossed for the chocolate torte, a brownielike indulgence.
"We split a pot of tea," Mr. Kimmons-Gilbert said.
They come as the party struggles to define itself in the aftermath of November's presidential defeat, with growing talk of an internecine split between moderates and Tea Party-backed members of the Republican Party.
The most high-profile splits are between original tea party leaders like Kremer and Jenny Beth Martin, who were part of that first tea party in Atlanta and who went on to help form Tea Party Patriots.
It was not easy; families can be split on the subject of tea bags.
But the split between the mainstream and tea-party wings of the GOP will provide openings for Democrats to force compromises, and that's exactly what happened on the omnibus spending bill.
In addition to grass-root defections by activists like Dooley, tea party leadership has split over Trump's presidential bid.
Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, a libertarian advocacy group formed by leaders of an earlier Koch-backed enterprise, said the split doesn't signal the end of the tea party as much as "an evolution of it".
A widening and emotional rift over legal tactics has split the anti-abortion movement, with its longtime leaders facing a Tea Party-like insurrection from many grass-roots activists who are impatient with the pace of change.
Or at Asda, by the taste of it, you use that split-bag scenario as the main flavour inspiration for this curious tea blend.
