Happy National Iced Tea Day! We’ve had hot tea for centuries, but we had to wait for readily-available ice — first provided by ice harvesters, and later via refrigeration — for iced tea to become a popular summer drink. Whether you enjoy it as actual tea poured over ice or as “sweet tea” as we call it down here (actually sugar water with just enough tea to give it a brown color), today’s its day. I’m going to celebrate as I hunker down with some of the real stuff over client work at my local tea shop, Kaleisia, later this afternoon.
As you enjoy an iced tea, be sure to check out this NPR piece: As American as Iced Tea: A Brief, Sometimes Boozy, History.