The Wonder of Sweet Tea and Iced Tea in General

Tea, in its various forms, has been a part of the human diet for in excess of five thousand years. Only in the last two hundred years or so, with the advent of refrigeration, has iced tea gained such a devoted following.

In the early nineteenth century, or 1830, to be exact, the first patented "ice box" was created, and with it, tea drinking would never be the same. Recipes for cold tea began showing up in popular cookbooks as early as 1839, and were largely "tea punches," sometimes potent drinks mixed with claret or champagne. Green teas were first used in these recipes, and not until later did the use of black tea become prominent.

In the 1900's, more cookbooks began to run recipes for tea, and it was at the 1904 world's fair in St. Louis that iced tea became popular. Record heat during the fair drove people away from hot drink vendors and toward those who had chilled drinks. Thus was "discovered" iced tea almost seventy years after its actual creation.

Historians tend to credit a man named Richard Blechyndan with the invention of iced tea following the world's fair because he served his hot tea through iced lead pipes, effectively chilling the tea on the hot day. Even this account, however, has been called into question in recent years due to apparent discrepancies in the records of the world's fair concerning whether he was even in attendance that year. As to who the actual inventor of iced tea was, it appears that no one knows, and perhaps that is another facet of the mysterious history of tea.

In the south, to order iced tea in a restaurant is to order the uniquely southern drink sweet tea. Serving otherwise south of Kentucky is widely considered high treason, and more than enough reason for a server to find no tip on the table after the meal. Not found elsewhere in the United States, sweet tea has found a passionate following among southerners, with as many recipes for making it as there are people to drink it. Fast food restaurants serve the drink alongside perennial Coke and Pepsi products, and it is a staple drink for dinners, lunches, and even breakfasts throughout the south.

For the five thousand years in which tea has been a part of the human diet, it has entered our mythos as not only a staple beverage, but also a sacred drink, an energy drink, and now a clearly universal drink. The only question left to ask is what will the future hold for the venerable tea leaf? Perhaps another five thousand years will tell the story.