I'm not a Ron-basher, but I strongly suspect that 2007 Paul "tea party" was just a one-time event with tea props rather than anything in any meaningful way related to the Tea Party.
No doubt there was some cross over between the Ron Paul movement and the “Tea Party” movement/mindset as it came to be known, but the Paul use of the term had nothing to do with the rapid launch of the name back into the mainstream in spring of 09. That was Santelli, made famous by Rush, Drudge, and Robert Gibbs, along with the rest of the NBC networks - acting like a match to kindling that had been buidling under Bush and then reached critical mass under Obama and threats of Obama Care.
It has become a lot of things now, being organic and leaderless by design, but it is mainly a conservative small government pro liberty approach. It is about liberty, but not strict libertarianism by any means. Some particular tea party groups have been taken over by social only conservatives, but that is not what it started out as either.