Why did the colonists drop the tea in the Boston Harbor? What other choicies were open to them?

In the simplest of terms it was a protest against the tax policy of the British government and the East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies. After officials in Boston refused to return three shiploads of taxed tea to Britain, a group of colonists boarded the ships and destroyed the tea by throwing it into Boston Harbor. The British held most of the cards so to speak. The Colonists felt force and radical acts were their best strategy in dealing with this. There might have been other ways but the Sons of Liberty were not much for diplomacy.