Iced tea discovered on hot day

Do you love a nice tall glass of iced tea on a hot summer day?

If you do, you are part of a relatively new tradition in the long and noble history of tea.

According to The Tea Companion (Macmillan, 1997), by Jane Pettigrew, tea was first poured over ice in 1904 at the St. Louis World Trade Fair. A group of tea producers had a booth at the fair promoting black Indian tea, different from the green tea popular in the U.S. at the time. Unfortunately (or fortunately) temperatures were especially high during the hot summer fair and the crowds avoided the hot tea.

Worried that their investment was for naught, Richard Blechnyden, the English supervisor at the Fair, packed ice cubes into their glasses and poured the tea over it. People flocked to sample the cold brew.

Since then, iced tea has become the most popular. In the U.S., in 2019, Americans drank 3.8 billion servings of tea with 80 percent of it served over ice, according to Tea USA.

Ironically, though it was an Englishman who invented the drink, icing tea never caught on in Britain.

Here’s how to brew a perfect glass of iced tea. In very hot, but not boiling, water put in double the amount of tea you normally use for a hot serving. Sweeten the hot tea immediately so the sugar will melt and the tea will not be cloudy. Fill another glass with a lot of ice and pour the hot tea over it. For a special garnish, add a slice of orange, or the old favorite, lemon.