To my surprise, I learned from Google this afternoon that today, June 10, is National Iced Tea Day here in the U.S., and that June is National Iced Tea Month. Now, I like iced tea very much (it's my favorite beverage, done properly), but I don't think it needs both a celebratory day *and* month, somehow.
I also found this article from the on-line site of the Nashua Telegraph, which purports to give the "true" history of iced tea. According to the article, iced tea started during the Victorian era as a cold punch-like beverage made with sugar and alcohol, but Richard Blechynden, India Tea Commissioner and director of the East Indian Pavilion at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, began the process of popularizing the simple cold brewed tea that most Americans, at least, associate with the idea of "iced tea" today.
I find this bit of history interesting. Nowadays, most of my professional colleagues order iced tea with lunch as an *alternative* to alcohol. It goes to show how much a beverage can change its character in 200 years.
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