June is National Iced Tea Month

​I would say that all of the summer months are perfect for iced tea, but since the temperature really start heating up in June, it makes sense that this is “ice tea month.” Yesterday, as it turns out, was National Iced Tea Day. Without knowing that, I sipped a very nice glass of iced tea on the patio at the new Piropos Grille in Parkville, where I learned from my historian friend Kimberlee that one theory about the invention of ice tea has the innovation taking place in the state of Missouri.

Well, cool tea, anyway: The legend goes that back in 1904, during the World’s Fair, the commissioner of the East Indian Pavilion, Richard Blechynden, created a way to cool tea — by distributing it through iced pipes — during the sweltering summer months when hot tea was just, well, too hot.

But other sources will tell you that iced tea dates back much further than 1904. The sultry temperatures in the Southern states made sweet cold tea a favorite beverage as early as 1877, when a cookbook, Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree listed a recipe for the drink. Since I own a copy of this cookbook, I’ll share the recipe with you. And because it’s a Southern recipe, the instructions create a sweetened tea. It’s not the simplest recipe, so for a much easier brew, just use teabags.