Iced tea is a form of cold tea. Though usually served in a glass with ice, it can also refer to a tea that has been chilled or cooled. It may or may not be sweetened. Iced tea is also a popular packaged drink. It can be mixed with flavored syrup, with multiple common flavors including lemon, raspberry, lime, passion fruit, peach, orange, strawberry, and cherry. While most iced teas get their flavor from tea leaves (Camellia sinensis), 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 lower temperature (one hour in the sun versus 5 minutes at 180–212 °F / 80–100 °C). Some people call this “sun tea”. In addition, sometimes it is also left to stand overnight in the refrigerator.
History
The oldest printed recipes for iced tea date back to the 1870s. Two of the earliest cookbooks with iced tea recipes are the Buckeye Cookbook[9] by Estelle Woods Wilcox, first published in 1876, and Housekeeping in Old Virginia[10] by Marion Cabell Tyree, first published in 1877.[11] Iced tea had started to appear in the USA during the 1860s. Seen as a novelty at first, during the 1870s it became quite widespread.[12] Not only did recipes appear in print, but iced tea was offered on hotel menus, and was on sale at railroad stations.[13] Its popularity rapidly increased after Richard Blechynden introduced it at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis.[14]
Iced tea’s popularity in the United States has led to an addition to standard cutlery sets: the iced tea spoon is a teaspoon with a long handle, suitable for stirring sugar into glasses. In the summer, iced tea is at its most popular.
It is a common stereotype of the Southeastern United States due to the popularity of sweet iced tea in that region that unsweet iced tea is not available or frowned upon. It is true that often the term “iced tea” is assumed to mean sweetened iced tea by default in that region.
Iced tea varieties
Iced tea is traditionally served with lemon slice used as a garnish, which is often placed on the rim of the glass. In the Southwest United States (or at least in restaurants with a Southwest theme), lime is also very popular (especially in Mexican restaurants). It is not entirely uncommon for establishments to put out slices of both lemon and lime for the customer to take for themselves.
