The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and iced tea fun facts. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at Iced Tea fun facts.

Iced Tea Fun Facts. Iced tea  is a form of cold tea, usually 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, passion fruit, strawberry and cherry. While most iced teas get their flavor from tea leaves (Camellia sinensis), tisanes 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. Times can range from one hour in the sun versus 5 minutes at 80-100 °C.

• Cookbooks dating from the early 19th century indicate Americans have been drinking iced tea since that time. However, the beverage became generally popular after Richard Blechynden of the India Tea Commission offered free sample to attendees of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.
• New York City tea importer Thomas Sullivan became annoyed at the high cost of the tin boxes he used to send tea samples to customers. So in 1904 he switched to small cloth bags. One recipient brewed a pot of tea by simply pouring hot water over the bag.
• Tea is a hydrating alternative to sugary beverages. Use to replace things like soda. Tea might even help boost weight loss efforts, along with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise.
• Recent studies on green tea shows that “routine tea consumption of an average of about two cups a day is associated with a lower percentage of body fat and weight control” than non-tea drinkers.
• In 2003 Georgia state representative John Noel tried to pass a house bill making it mandatory for all restaurants to serve sweet tea.
• The teaspoon was developed to easily add sugar to tall glasses full of iced tea.
• Approximately 80 percent of the tea served in the United States today is iced tea.
• According to the Tea Association of the USA, Americans consume well over 55 billion servings of tea (over 2.50 billion gallons) a year.
• The famous long island iced tea drink doesn’t contain any tea.

Key Dates

• June is National Iced Tea Month.
• June 10th is National Iced Tea Day.

Iced Tea Fun Facts We May Have Missed

Share any iced tea fun facts we missed in the comment section or our food truck forum. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Fun Facts about Iced Tea

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