Tea Blog

As I write this, we’re approaching the midpoint of summer—and if that’s not prime iced tea season, it’s hard to imagine what is. While it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly who first created iced tea, Americans have embraced it enthusiastically for generations. By many estimates, roughly 80 percent of tea consumed in the United States is served iced.

Iced tea can take countless forms, from bottled beverages in a wide range of flavors to the syrupy sweet tea popular in the American South, as well as more refined preparations such as cold-brewed iced tea made from high-quality green teas from Japan or China.

Historically, iced tea has never had a single definition. References to the beverage can be traced back at least to 1835, and likely even earlier with more extensive research.

In an 1868 volume titled Handbook of Practical Cookery, instructions for iced tea are minimal, simply noting that it “is made as iced coffee,” assuming familiarity with that method. Later works provided more detail. The Illinois Cook Book (1881) recommended brewing tea strong, allowing it to cool, then adding ice and sweetening to taste, with lemon as an optional addition.

The White House Cook Book (1890) advised against adding sugar and milk to iced tea, suggested that either green or black tea—or a blend—could be used, and emphasized preparing the beverage in advance. Similarly, The Every-Day Cook-Book and Encyclopedia of Practical Recipes (1889) recommended strong tea but favored sweetening and even blending green and black teas for improved flavor.

Another publication, The Hearthstone, or Life at Home (1886), offered a more detailed method, including heating dry tea leaves, scalding the teapot, using freshly boiling water, and limiting steeping time to five minutes. Interestingly, it also suggested adding an equal amount of milk unless lemon was used.

Lemon-based iced tea preparations also appear in The Home Cook Book (1876), which includes a recipe titled “Iced Tea à la Russe”—a mix of tea, ice, and lemon juice. If that combination sounds familiar, you may recognize similarities in this discussion of lemon tea combinations reminiscent of the Arnold Palmer beverage.

See more of William I. Lengeman’s articles in this archive of tea-related writing by the author.

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