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03/06/2026
Summer and iced tea culture have been inseparable for some decades now, but how did this simple beverage shoot into popularity? Iced tea existed since the early 1900s, used as a medicinal concoction, before skyrocketing to fame thanks to a World Fair in the United States. Today, there is a sweet tea and an iced tea, one with sugar and one without. No matter which you prefer, the history of iced tea is an intriguing one worth exploring this summer.
The history of iced tea does not begin at St. Louis World's Fair in Missouri; it begins in the cookbooks, punch bowls, and ice houses of the early 19th century. English and American recipe books from the 1800s show that tea culture entailed tea being served cold long before the famous 1904 moment, though in a form quite different from the glass of black tea over ice recognised today.
The earliest cold tea preparations were punches that were heavily sweetened, usually spiked with liquor, and made with green tea rather than black tea. One early documented example is the 1839 Kentucky Housewife by Mrs Lettice Bryan. It includes a 'Tea Punch' recipe, using strong, steeped tea with sugar, cream, and a bottle of claret or champagne, served hot or cold. Many of these chilled tea punches had fancy names like Regent's Punch, Charleston's St. Cecilia Punch, and Savannah's Chatham Artillery Punch, all of which were passed around in American social circles.
The 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, commonly called the St. Louis World's Fair, was held from April to December 1904. It drew approximately 20 million visitors from around the world and was a place to showcase industrial, cultural, and culinary innovations.
Several foods and beverages, including the ice cream cone and the hot dog bun, are associated with its fairgrounds. However, the story that Richard Blechynden 'invented' iced tea at the fair is a well-worn myth that food historians have been correcting for decades. Iced tea already existed well before 1904, and what the World's Fair did was commercialise and nationalise it.
In 1893, more than a decade before the famous St. Louis fair, the Chicago World's Fair already had a concession vendor who grossed over $2,000 selling iced tea and lemonade. That same year, the Home Queen World's Fair Souvenir Cookbook included iced tea serving variations. And in 1895, a Pennsylvania housewares company was using iced tea as a selling point for its ice shredders.
In the summer beverage history lesson on Iced Tea, Richard Blechynden (1857-1940) is a prominent figure. He was a British tea merchant who served as a commissioner and promoter for Indian black tea. He was working to build a market for the tea in the United States at a time when Chinese green tea dominated American tea culture. He had a booth at the 1904 World's Fair's India Pavilion, distributing free samples of hot black tea. The summer heat wave that struck St. Louis that year made his task nearly impossible, and visitors seeking cold relief walked straight past his steaming booth.
His response was to buy a block of ice from a nearby vendor and serve his brewed black tea cold over it. The chilled drink was an instant hit. Blechynden reportedly continued his campaign after the fair by promoting iced black tea at department stores across the United States as a way of building long-term demand for Indian black teas.
However, the Countess of Blessington complicates the Blechynden narrative. A 1823 account describes Marguerite, Countess of Blessington, sipping iced tea in Naples, Italy, nearly 80 years before the St. Louis World's Fair. Cold tea, it appears, had been circulating in European and American social circles for most of the 19th century. So, Blechynden's contribution was not invention but nationwide popularisation, and that is no small thing.
While the St. Louis World's Fair is the story most told about the history of iced tea, cold tea has been part of food culture across Asia, the Middle East, and Europe for centuries, often with little awareness of or connection to the American tradition. Here are some popular ones.
An amber-hued blend of strongly brewed Ceylon or Assam tea, Thailand’s cha yen is a sugary iced tea. It has condensed milk, with spices like star anise, tamarind, and orange blossom. It is served over crushed ice in a tall glass and often topped with evaporated milk for a dramatic ombre effect.
Bubble tea is an iced tea (black, green, jasmine, or oolong) that is famed for its chewy tapioca pearls and also goes by the name of boba tea. It was invented in Taiwanese teahouses in the 1980s, with the Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung widely credited as its birthplace.
In Japan, cold tea is a national habit delivered primarily through one of the country's most vlogged vending machines. The thousands of vending machines in the island country dispense cold bottled teas, from overwhelmingly unsweetened green tea or oolong tea, on virtually every urban street corner.
Moroccan mint tea is a strong green tea poured from a height over fresh mint leaves and generous quantities of sugar. It is one of the most famous tea traditions in the world, usually associated with the ritual of hot, ceremonial service. In the scorching summers of North Africa, however, a cold version of this beloved drink has become increasingly popular.
The Swiss, of all nations, are responsible for one of the most consequential moments in the commercial history of cold tea. In 1983, two employees of a certain Swiss beverage company visited the United States, tasted iced tea, and returned home with the idea of putting it into bottles for European retail. Then followed two giant brands that dominate iced tea culture today, be it tea bags or powdered tea, in India and beyond.
Whatever your preferred style of iced tea, be it the American Southern sweet tea, Japanese green, or Taiwanese-inspired bubble tea, all iced tea is worth trying this summer. So, make sure you read every bit of this summer beverage history and also try some summer iced tea recipes to stay cool and hydrated this summer.
Lemon-flavoured iced tea is widely considered the most popular globally, with peach also common. In the U.S., sweet tea (sweetened black iced tea) is especially dominant.
