June 10th is National Iced Tea Day, and the entire month of June is National Iced Tea Month. According to the official National Iced Tea website (yes, there really is one), “this iconic hot-weather drink that makes you want to lazily drawl your vowel sounds as you leisurely rock back-and-forth on your porch has been a popular refreshing elixir for more than a century. Sweetened or unsweetened and sometimes mixed with other flavors such as lemon, mint, peach, apple, cherry, strawberry – however you enjoy it let’s raise a glass of our beloved bevy and say cheers.”
Did you know…?
Next to water, tea is the most consumed beverage in the world? In 2014, Americans consumed over 80 billion servings of tea, or more than 3.60 billion gallons. Approximately 85 per cent of the tea consumed in America is iced. Ready-to-Drink iced tea has spiked over the last ten years with sales conservatively estimated to be more than $5.2 billion.
We have the 1904 World’s Fair to thanks for the lift-off in popularity of iced tea. That exceedingly hot summer meant fair goers were looking to cool down and what better way than with a glass of iced tea. By the First World War, Americans were buying tall glasses, which became commonly known as iced-tea glasses, long spoons suitable for stirring sugar into taller glasses and lemon forks. Prohibition, which ran from 1920 to 1933, helped boost the popularity of iced tea as Americans looked at alternatives to drinking beer, wine and hard liquor, which were made illegal during this period.
While most iced teas get their flavor from tea leaves, tisanes or herbal teas are also sometimes served cold and referred to as iced tea. Iced tea is sometimes made by a particularly long steeping of tea leaves at a lower temperature (one hour in the sun versus five minutes at 80-100 °C). Some people call this sun tea. In addition, sometimes it is also left to stand overnight in the refrigerator.
“TEA – Freshly brewed tea, after three to five minutes’ infusion, is essential if a good quality is desired. The water, as for coffee, should be freshly boiled and poured over the tea for this short time . . . The tea leaves may be removed when the desired strength is obtained . . . Tea, when it is to be iced, should be made much stronger, to allow for the ice used in chilling. A medium strength tea is usually liked. A good blend and grade of black tea is most popular for iced tea, while green and black are used for hot . . . To sweeten tea for an iced drink-less sugar is required if put in while tea is hot, but often too much is made and sweetened, so in the end there is more often a waste than saving . . . Iced tea should be served with or without lemon, with a sprig of mint, a strawberry, a cherry, a slice of orange, or pineapple. This may be fresh or canned fruit. Milk is not used in iced tea.”
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