Ice-cold and refreshing! A cool splash of ice cubes swimming happily in a jug of thirst-quenching tea. June 10 was celebrated as World Iced Tea Day. The timing is perfect, to be honest. We can’t give up tea, but when the summer heat hits, there’s nothing quite like the icy-cold, refreshing taste of iced tea quenching your thirst. Who could say no to a huge glass of iced tea, garnished with lemon slices and fresh mint leaves, with the cold from the ice fogging up the glass? The history of how ice met tea is quite interesting. But first, let’s take a brief look at the history of tea in Türkiye.
Addicted to tea!
Although we’re one of the world’s most tea-loving nations, drinking tea is a relatively new habit for us, and iced tea is an even more recent addition to our beverage culture. It’s true that we, as a nation, are addicted to tea. The first thing in the morning is to brew tea, even before opening a single eye. We keep sipping tea until noon, as if it is an extension of breakfast. There’s hardly an eatery that doesn’t serve Turkish-style tulip-shaped glasses of tea after a meal for free as a complimentary gesture. Afternoon tea is greeted with joy, as if it were long-awaited and becomes an hour of gossip when neighboring women gather after finishing their household chores. At some point in the evening, the phrase “Let’s have some tea!” is never out of place. In workplaces, the most important and popular figure is always the tea server. Our daily tea drinking habit permeates every aspect of our lives, but it is never as ceremonial as the Japanese tradition or as formal and aristocratic as the English teatime. We do not have family heirlooms to be proud of either, like the Russians’ stamped samovars, passed down from generation to generation. For us, drinking tea is an expression of camaraderie and a kind of friendship that begins in the early morning hours and lasts until bedtime. Yet, astonishingly, our tea- drinking history is relatively recent.
Empowerment through tea
We first became acquainted with tea in the early years of the Republic, when tea cultivation was supported in the Rize region. It became widespread after the opening of the first large-scale tea factory in 1945, and only then did we quickly become a tea-loving nation. Following the Turkish War of Independence, the young Turkish Republic, founded in 1923, was in ruins. Its agriculture was totally destroyed, and the country, with its shrunken borders, was deprived of all the previously available food sources in the former Ottoman territory. The first Izmir Economic Congress was held in 1923, even before the declaration of the Republic, as an urgent attempt to revive the war-shattered economy. The lesson learned from the experience of the last decades of the Ottoman Empire was clear: Sovereignty and political liberty could only be achieved through economic independence and self-sufficiency. The declaration was clear. The goal of choosing to be a completely self-sustained country was declared openly at the Economy Congress: All basic necessities had to be grown and produced within the country. Tea was introduced as an alternative to coffee. There was a need to find a substitute for the traditional drink Turkish coffee, as it could not be grown in the country’s climate. In 1924, Law No. 407 was passed, calling for the cultivation of tea in the Black Sea province of Rize; a decision which eventually turned the nation to one of avid tea drinkers of the world.
A cool twist
Iced tea, however, is a relatively new habit. Iced tea, as we know it today, originated in the United States. It first achieved widespread popularity at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In the stifling, humid heat of St. Louis, located on the banks of the Mississippi River, iced tea came to life as a rescue invention. When British tea merchant Richard Blechynden struggled to get fair visitors to try hot tea, he added ice to it. Suddenly, cold iced tea became the star of the fair. Its ability to cut through the heat and provide refreshment had been a life-saver operation, which cooled the crowds.
But of course, there’s a history before that. To find the earliest written records, we must go all the way back to Naples. There are accounts of people sipping iced tea in Naples as early as the beginning of the 1800s. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that our own iced sherbet drinks could have been at the root of this. Because, as early as the 17th century, there was an influence from Turkish sherbet in Naples; in fact, the word “sorbetto,” used for fruit-flavored iced desserts, had been borrowed into Italian from the Turkish word “şerbet.”
As for iced tea as we know it today, it arrived in Türkiye in the early 2000s. It was introduced to the Turkish beverage world as a non-carbonated, refreshing alternative. Needless to say, iced tea was quickly embraced, just as tea had won over hearts about half a century earlier. Now, ice-cold and refreshing, iced tea is a true summer refreshment served in frosted glasses.
