The Wonder Beverage: Iced Tea

Leafing through the pages of history, the concept of iced tea dates back to the 1870s. However, in those years, it was looked upon more as an oddity by the ordinary folks who believed tea to be a hot beverage. 

Before long, iced tea began to be accepted by people as hotels tweaked it into their menus, and a profusion of tea stalls at railroad stations began selling it.

With time, the popularity of ice tea boomed when a plantation owner, Richard Blechyden, introduced it at the 1904 World’s Fair in St Louis, Missouri. At the fair, Richard, prompted by the sweltering weather, offered the milieu his free brewed tea samples blended with ice. It instantly turned into a roaring sellout. 

Some schools of thought believe the whole concept of iced tea was Richard Blechyden’s brainchild. Gradually, iced tea stole the hearts of the people and became one of the celebrated beverages enjoyed by the millions.

As the name suggests, iced tea is a uniquely refreshing beverage, perfect for quenching your thirst on a hot day. Served cold in tall glasses with ice, it offers a variety of brewing options. You can choose to hot brew, chill it, or steep it in cold water for hours, then serve it with ice. For a more adventurous twist, try making sun tea by brewing it and exposing it to the sun’s power for a day, then serving it over a glass of ice cubes.

Today, iced tea is a veritable treasure trove of flavors and options. You can easily buy iced tea in packages blended with myriad flavors, such as raspberry, orange, lemon, and strawberry, to name a few. The option also includes sweetened or unsweetened, both. Among the tea types, the most popular are black tea, green tea, herbal tea, and fruit-flavored varieties.

Either sugar, honey, or fruit syrups sweeten the iced tea. Iced tea is functional and can be easily paired with fruits, herbs like rosemary or mint, and ginger to make it a fusion or tisane. 

Iced tea

While Turkey may hold the crown for the highest tea consumption, the United States has a unique relationship with iced tea. A staggering 80 percent of tea consumed in the U.S. is iced tea. This chilled beverage, steeped in history, has two distinct variations: iced and sweet tea.

If iced tea in the North is simply ice tea (sweetened or otherwise), in the Southern states, the same beverage is named sweet tea, highly sweetened with added sugar, syrups, dollops of honey, or other sweeteners. 

Sweet tea has become a household staple in the South, and Southerners drink it by the gallons. Another variety that has taken the fancy of tea lovers in the U.S. is half-and-half—a blend of iced tea and lemonade, a favorite of golf legend Arnold Palmer, as they say.

When buying the best iced tea, the brands vary to suit your taste and preference. Top-of-the-shelf iced tea brands include Lipton, Pure Leaf, Arizona, and Snapple. Each brand offers a medley of flavors and options for sweetened or unsweetened to suit your requirements. 

Pure Leaf topped the sales chart in the United States in 2023. The total sales of the Pure Leaf beverage exceeded 985 million dollars, outstripping other competitors like Arizona and Lipton by a healthy margin. 

“Sugar provides a lot of excess calories in most Americans’ diet, which may lead to chronic disease states such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity,”  Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee’s registered dietitian Madeleine H. Hallum said. 

* The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a serving of food contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

Source: https://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/tea-iced-unsweetened

Sweet tea lovers should be aware that a gallon of sweet tea contains at least a cup of sugar, almost 25 grams in a 16-ounce glass. Combined with excess calories you may ingest by eating other foods that contain sugar, like cakes, pastries, smoothies, or juices, the total amount of sugar consumed can easily exceed the recommended limit, increasing the risk of chronic diseases.

How about drinking coffee vs iced tea?

Both coffee and tea are popular beverages, and both contain caffeine. Coffee is known for its potential health benefits, such as lowering the risk of cancer and diabetes. On the other hand, iced tea, especially when unsweetened, can help maintain blood pressure and cholesterol, reduce stress, improve mental health, and enhance overall productivity. In summary, both beverages have unique advantages, and their choice depends on your preferences and health goals.

Can drinking too much-iced tea dehydrate you?

All tea comes from a single plant, Camellia sinensis. Green, oolong, black, and white tea varieties contain caffeine. Science backs that caffeine works as a mild diuretic, which causes your kidneys to flush extra sodium and water from the body through urine, causing possible dehydration.

However, the caffeine content in iced tea is so minimal that it hardly makes a significant impact. So, whether iced tea or, for that matter, hot tea, both contribute to the body’s fluid needs and, hands down, cannot cause dehydration.

Also Read: Dietary Fiber : Necessity For Healthy Lifestyle And Well Being

Iced tea drinking has shot up to the next level, and more and more people fancy drinking it. Now the question is: Is drinking iced tea a fad, or does it have health benefits, too?

The American Heart Association prescribes the maximum daily added sugar intake to be no more than 25 grams for women and 36 grams for men. Sweetened iced tea can easily cross the recommended limit. For instance, if you drink a 23-ounce can of Arizona Peach iced tea, you will ingest 69 grams of sugar and a whopping 259 calories in a single go. 

When considering the health benefits of iced tea, it’s important to note that unsweetened iced tea is a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and flavonoids. These diverse groups of plant compounds can provide various health benefits, making unsweetened iced tea a bright and healthy choice. 

Unsweetened iced tea can be a valuable addition to your daily routine when consumed in moderation. Loaded with vitamins, minerals, and flavonoids, iced tea’s potent antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds bolster our immune system.

The bottom line is including unsweetened iced tea in your diet regimen may lead to health benefits such as improved heart health, lower blood pressure, boosted immune system, managed weight, enhanced cognitive function, better sleep, low glycemic index, more robust bones (for its fluoride content), reduced stress levels, and even skin protection.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the above text are solely research-based, not medical advice; the author solicits readers’ discretion and cross-references or consulting a healthcare provider for further verification.