Iced tea

For other meanings, see Iced tea (disambiguation)

Iced tea with lemon.

Iced tea poured

Iced tea, also known as ice tea, is a form of cold tea, often served in a glass with ice. It may or may not be sweetened. Iced tea is also a popular packaged drink. It can be mixed with flavored syrup, with common flavors including lemon, peach, raspberry, lime, and cherry. While most iced teas get their flavor from tea leaves (Camellia sinensis) , other herb-infused beverages are also sometimes served cold and referred to as iced tea. Unsweetened 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 80-100°C). Some people call this "sun tea". In addition, sometimes it is also left to stand overnight in the refrigerator.

Cultural variations

Ice cubes in a glass of Canadian iced tea, made from concentrate

Austria

Iced tea is very popular in Austria, though the common name is ice tea instead of iced tea. The Austrian "Rauch" Corporation is one of the most popular manufacturers.

Belgium and The Netherlands

In Belgium, Netherlands and various other parts of Europe, "Ice Tea" is the brand name of a carbonated variety of iced tea marketed by Lipton since 1978. They also market a number of other non-carbonated iced teas under the "Ice Tea" brand. Other companies have followed suit but use variations on the name.

Canada

In Canada, iced tea refers to sweetened iced tea, usually flavoured with lemon. In most provinces, unsweetened iced tea is almost unheard of. This tea is made at home from drink powder or obtained in cans or bottles. Water, sugar and flavourings may exceed tea in terms of quantity in these drinks. Sweetened Green teas and those flavoured with raspberry, peach, or pomegranate are also becoming more common via marketing efforts. Sweetened iced tea is often served as an alternative to other soft drinks, prepared by companies like Lipton, Arizona, Good Host and Nestea, although fresh-brewed iced tea is becoming somewhat popular, particularly in smaller independently-owned restaurants. Powdered or frozen iced tea is a common preparation at home, due to its ease of use.

China

Although not a traditional way to serve tea, iced tea gained wide spread popularity in even rural areas since the 80's with canned or bottled tea. Many varieties of tea, including green tea, are available packaged and sold in stores. Many families make their own iced tea by either putting lots of ice in a small amount of strong hot tea or by putting hot tea in a fridge for some time. Common types of iced tea are black, green, oolong, and lots of herbal types as well. Iced herbal tea is especially popular in the hot summers, where "yin" or cooling herbs are used to make tea such as chrysanthemum, kuding tea, etc. Cooled tea but still warm was already popular throughout ancient times but tea at cold temperatures was not as popular then.

Germany

Nestea and Lipton are the most popular brands and lemon- and peach-flavored iced teas are the most popular variants. Lipton offers a number of non-carbonated iced teas under the "Ice Tea" brand and the carbonated variety under the brand "Ice Tea Sparkling". Iced tea is also available in many restaurants. Unsweetened iced tea is very rare. Instant teas are available that can be used to prepare iced tea with cold water.

Hong Kong

Iced lemon tea (not to be confused with lemon iced tea) is always available at Hong Kong restaurants. A strong black tea (e.g. Ceylon) is brewed at length in a metal pot over a burner, and prepared as follows: a large glass is filled with ice, a scoop of simple syrup is added (if desired), and the glass is filled to the top with hot tea. Slices of lemon are placed atop the mixture, which are then muddled into the tea by the customer, ensuring that the floral volatile oils present in the lemon peel are at their peak when consumed.

In dessert parlors (such as "Quickly"), iced green tea is often available (usually flavored with jasmine blossoms), both with and without tapioca pearls, as is Hong Kong milk tea (usually served warm in cafes, but poured over ice when served with tapioca, creating a very creamy iced tea).

Indonesia

In Indonesia, iced tea is sweetened; it is known as "es teh manis" and is served with a meal. Bottled brands include Sosro and Lipton.

Iced tea as served with Indonesian food

Italy

Iced tea is a popular drink in Italy and is widely available, generally only in lemon- and peach-flavored incarnations. San Benedetto, as well as Lipton, are well-known brands. Apple is another favorite national flavour of tea.

Japan

Japan is one of the most important iced tea markets in the world and iced tea in bottles and cans is a common sight in the country's ubiquitous vending machines. Japanese iced tea products mirror the market for hot tea in the sense that they are mostly green tea and oolong products, usually unflavoured and mostly unsweetened. Suntory, Kirin, and the Coca-Cola Company are some of the largest producers. Lipton, the world's largest tea brand, offers a range of iced tea products based on black tea through joint ventures with two local partners, Suntory and Morinaga.

It is Japanese-style products rather than the Western-style products that are penetrating the markets of East Asia. Several Japanese companies have also started exporting their products to Europe and North America, in particular Ito En, which markets a whole range of Japanese-style unsweetened green and oolong teas in the USA.

Malaysia

Iced Tea is very popular in Malaysia and is sold in most restaurants and grocery stores. The two most common types of tea are plain Chinese Iced Tea (teh ais) and Iced Lemon Tea (teh ais limau). Both varieties can be bought at most coffee shops and are both usually made by the outlet, though Iced Lemon Tea is also readily available at grocery stores in a canned form. Popular brands of Iced Lemon Tea are Lipton, Nestea, and F&N Seasons. Despite the name, coffee shops usually serve Ice Lemon Tea with a lime rather than a lemon. This is probably because locally grown lime is cheaper than imported lemons, and it provides a similar citrus flavour.

Philippines

Similar to the USA, iced tea is served in many bars and restaurants, grocery stores and fast food outlets as an alternative to carbonated soft drinks. In most areas, only the Nestea variety is available. It is also available in powdered form as well as in cans and bottles. Iced tea in the Philippines is almost always sweet, with a slight lemon flavor.

Switzerland

A company from the Swiss Alps has made its own herbal iced tea. This herbal iced tea is made from black tea, sugar, lemon juice and mint, melissa officinalis, verbena, chamomile, stinging nettle, lady's mantle. Another famous Swiss Ice Tea is Nestea, produced by the Swiss Brand Nestlé. It's available in classic flavours like Lemon and Peach, but also exotic ones like Hibiscus and Pineapple.

Taiwan

Bubble tea is usually a strong black tea, sweetened with sugar and condensed milk. It is served cold usually with tapioca pearls. There are many variations of it, with different types of teas; fruit-flavored bubble teas are popular as well. Sometimes pudding, jelly, or chunks of fruit are put into it instead of tapioca pearls.

Thailand

A glass of Thai tea

Thai iced tea or "cha-yen" (Template:Lang-th) in Thailand is a drink made from strongly-brewed black tea ("red tea" in East Asia). Other ingredients may include added orange blossom water, star anise, crushed tamarind seed or red and yellow food coloring, and sometimes other spices as well. This tea is sweetened with sugar and condensed milk and served chilled. Evaporated milk, coconut milk or whole milk is generally poured over the tea and ice before serving to add taste and creamy appearance. However, in Thailand, condensed milk and sugar are mixed with the tea before it is poured over ice and then topped with evaporated milk. In Thai restaurants worldwide, it is served in a tall glass, though in Thailand it is more typically poured over the crushed ice in a clear (or translucent) plastic bag. It can also be made into a frappé at more westernised vendors.

It is popular in many American restaurants that serve Thai food. Although Thai tea is not the same as bubble tea, a Southeast and East Asian beverage that contains large tapioca pearls, Thai tea with tapioca pearls is a popular flavor of bubble tea.

Additional variations include:

• Dark Thai iced tea (Thai: ชาดำเย็น, cha-dam-yen): Thai tea served chilled with no milk content and sweetened with sugar only. The concept is based on traditional Indian tea, which is used as the main ingredient.
• Lime Thai tea (Thai: ชามะนาว, cha-ma-now): Similar to Dark Thai iced tea, but flavoured with lime as well as sweetened with sugar. Mint may also be added.

Turkey

In a traditional tea-drinking country such as Turkey, iced tea is a new, but considerably popular summer drink. Lipton iced tea and Nestea are two different non-carbonated iced tea brands with flavours such as lemon, lime, mango, peach, and berries.

United Kingdom

Iced tea is becoming a more popular beverage in the United Kingdom, though not replacing hot tea, with milk and sometimes sugar. Lipton sold their carbonated iced tea, similar to the one sold in Belgium, but the drink disappeared from shelves in the mid-1990s. Recently Lipton has returned to general sale of non-carbonated tea, quickly followed by Nestea.

United States

In the United States, iced tea is very popular as an alternative to carbonated soft drinks, especially in the hotter southern states: it is ubiquitous in restaurants, convenience stores, vending machines, and grocery stores. It may be freshly made on premises, or available in bottles and cans, and at self-serve soda fountains. Restaurants typically give the customer the choice of sweetened or unsweetened.

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 by Estelle Woods Wilcox, first published in 1876, and Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree, first published in 1877. 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. Not only did recipes appear in print, but iced tea was offered on hotel menus, and was on sale at railroad stations. It is not unusual to read that iced tea was popularized, perhaps even created, at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis by Richard Blechynden, but this appears to be a "popular legend".

Iced tea's popularity in the United States has led to an addition to standard flatware 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.

Freshly brewed iced tea

Iced tea is traditionally served in the United States 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.

Because of the varieties of eateries in the United States, as well as climatic and cultural differences, a variety of iced teas are available. Most prominent are:

• In barbecue, soul food, and Southern cuisine-style, establishments, along with greasy spoons and general eateries, black tea is iced. This is by far the most commonly available form of freshly brewed iced tea, to which the above statements apply. Fruit-flavored and herbal brewed iced take a close second.
• In some coffeehouses, more exotic varieties may be iced, such as Jasmine tea or Earl Grey tea.
• Thai iced tea is common in Thai restaurants.
• Iced Chai tea (spiced Indian tea) is available from some restaurants and stores. While not traditionally served iced, in the U.S. chai is frequently served iced, with honey as a sweetener, or pre-sweetened when bottled.
• Iced Jasmine tea, Genmaicha, and Hojicha are available from some Chinese cuisine or other Asian cuisine restaurants, but rarely. It is more common to find one of these varieties hot, where the patron may pour the tea over ice.

Bottled iced tea

The main manufacturers of bottled or canned iced tea are Nestea, Lipton, Snapple, Turkey Hill, and AriZona Beverage. Such tea can be found on the shelves of most Western groceries and convenience stores, in a variety of flavors, and leaf types (usually black or green, occasionally white). With iced tea mass-produced at this scale, unsweetened varieties are somewhat rare: most are sweetened with corn syrup (although some major brands, like Snapple and Lipton, have begun to offer iced teas sweetened with sugar in place of corn syrup), and their sweetness places them in the same market as soft drinks. Both the sweetened and unsweetened varieties usually contain the additive citric acid, labeled either "for flavor" or as a "preservative." Canned varieties are canned under high pressure to prevent the cans from being crushed, which may result in very mild effervescence.

Health food and some other specialty stores often carry a different set of iced tea bottlers which may include Honest Tea, Tazo, Sweet Leaf Tea, various U.S. brands of the Japanese green tea giant Ito En, and other small companies. These are also available in a variety of flavors, although there is less emphasis on fruits and sweeteners, and greater emphasis on traditional tea spices and herbs (which can range from mint to oil of bergamot). Corn syrup as a sweetener is rare, with cane sugar, honey, and other sweeteners being more prominent. Citric acid as a stand-alone ingredient (i.e., present as a chemical additive and not because of the addition of citrus) is less common. Also, with these alternative producers, unsweetened tea with no additional ingredients (just tea-infused water) may be available, as well as uncommon varieties such as chai tea, white tea, genmai tea, Jasmine tea, Earl Gray tea, and hoji tea.

Secret iced tea

Secret iced tea, sometimes known as "Fruit-tea", is the mixture of iced tea and fresh fruit juice. The main fruits used in this mixture are usually pineapples, strawberries and cherries. Secret iced tea is the common type in the South. More commonly, Vodka and other alcoholic drinks are added.

Sweet tea

Sweet tea, sometimes known as "Southern Table Wine", is tea brewed very strong with a large amount of sugar added while the tea is still hot. The mixture of sugar and tea is then diluted with water, served over ice, and garnished with lemon. Sometimes the diluted mixture is allowed to cool to room temperature. Other times the sugar and tea mixture is not diluted at all but poured hot over a full tumbler of ice to cool and dilute it. Sweet tea is the common type in the South; elsewhere, unsweetened tea is the standard.

Sun tea

Iced tea can also be brewed by placing tea bags (or loose tea) in a large glass container with water and leaving the container in the sun for a number of hours. This often results in a mellower flavor, and has the added advantage of being only slightly warmer than room temperature after brewing and therefore can be enjoyed immediately. Another advantage is that sun tea does not require using electricity or burning fuel, thus saving energy. Sun tea can be served with syrup or lemon.

Sometimes, the temperature of the tea is not heated high enough to kill any bacteria, leaving the water potentially dangerous to drink. Proper cleaning measures and refrigeration must be undertaken to make the tea safe. The tea must be discarded if it appears thick, syrupy, or has ropey strands in it.

Fountain iced tea

In 1996, an FDA survey revealed high levels of coliform bacteria (due to inadequate cleansing) in the tubing from the reservoir to the spigot in iced tea dispensers used by some restaurants. Approximately the same time, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola companies began aggressive targeted marketing campaigns aimed at replacing fresh brewed iced tea in food service establishments with the cola companies' own tea concentrate which is dispensed using the same method as fountain drinks, pumped from a Bag-In-Box. In many cases, the cola companies provided a fountain dispenser for the tea concentrate that looked similar to the containers that were previously used to dispense fresh brewed tea. However, few serious iced tea drinkers were impressed with the taste of the products and tea sales at the establishments that offered them consistently fell after the switch to concentrate. Recent advances in tea brewing equipment and sanitation procedures have prompted some establishments (such as McDonalds) to return to brewing iced tea in recent years.

Half and half (Arnold Palmer)

There is also a growing popularity in the United States of a mixed drink called "half and half". Often called an Arnold Palmer, the drink was eventually marketed by Snapple, Nantucket Nectars, and Arizona Iced Tea; half and half is a mix of both iced tea and lemonade, giving the drink a much sweeter taste as well as a bite. A John Daly is an alcoholic version of the drink, often made with sweet tea, vodka, and lemonade.

Another popular use for the term half and half is that of a mixture of sweetened and unsweetened tea at a restaurant or fast food establishment that offers both choices. This provides a middle ground for those who want sweetness but not as much as the sweet tea being served. In some parts of the southeastern United States, a half sweetened/half unsweetened tea is ordered as a "Chris Rock", named after the comedian originally from Andrew, South Carolina. Also, in certain areas of Florida, this drink can be ordered as a "Caddy Cooler".

Vietnam

In Vietnam, iced tea is often served free in coffee shops and some restaurants while the customer is deciding what to order.

See also

• Sweet tea
• Long Island Iced Tea
• Lipton Iced Tea

External links

• Templar Food Products - Private Label Iced Tea