National Iced Tea Day on June 10th each year celebrates one of summer’s favorite drinks. Whether you prefer sweetened or unsweetened, with or without lemon, many love and enjoy iced tea by the glass full all summer long.
Recipes for iced tea have been found dating back to the 1870s. The Buckeye Cookbook, published in 1876, and Housekeeping in Old Virginia, published in 1877, both contain iced tea recipes. It is believed, however, that iced tea started to appear in the United States in the 1860s and became widespread in the 1870s. During that time, hotels offered iced tea on their menus and railroad stations offered the beverage as well. In 1904, the beverage was introduced at the World’s Fair in St. Louis causing its popularity to explode.
My dad loved iced tea and we always had a pitcher or two in the house during the warm weather. It was always unsweetened. As young kids, my brothers, sister, and I put sugar (lots of sugar) in our tea and the best part of drinking a glass was slurping the sugar that had settled at the bottom. Nowadays I drink my tea unsweetened, made with good ole Lipton Tea in a tall glass with lotsa ice.
Sip, sip, hooray...have a brew-tea-ful day!
My parents were big ice tea drinkers, instant for a long time, then the real thing
ReplyDelete