Talk:American tea culture
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This entire article is messed up. It contains factually incorrect material, and needs a significant rewrite. More work than I am willing to spend today.
I already clarified the bit about tea being served only at tea parties and hotels, which is not a true ststement as both Hot and Iced Tea is served almost everywhere alongside coffee and soda and removed the 1904 worlds fair credit for iced tea's invention - US cookbooks dating back to the 1870's have printed recipes for Iced Tea.
Things that need to be fixed still;
1. Tea consumption prior to World War II was 40% Black, 40% Green, with the remaining choosing OOlong tea. After the war it was 99% black tea as the US was cut off from green tea sources.
2. Most Tea sold in the US is Ice Tea blends. Ice Tea Blends, sometimes called American blends, are made from Argentina tea stocks. Most of the tea grown in Argentina (at one time it was something like 5%-10% of world tea production) is consumed by the US! These tea blends taste very different from Indian and Chinese blends. The fine tea revival has much to do with the US re-opening trade with China.
3. Powdered Instant Tea- Nestea, nicknamed by many as Nas-Tea (Nasty), is an US invention exported to the rest of the world.
4. Sweet Tea, much of what you get in bottles, is traditionally a Southern US drink, although it was served in the North also. Snapple and Brisk are examples pre-sweetened Iced Tea that is exported to the rest of the world. A note here- most UK tea drinkers wince when first given a taste of US Sweet Tea made with the traditional 1 pound of sugar per gallon and made with low-quality ice tea blends. They also wince at Brisk and Snapple.
Is there any truth to the assertion that the revival of interest in fine teas in the U.S. since the 1980's is due to popularization of Earl Grey by the character Jean-Luc Picard? --Jeff robertson 14:01, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
