In honor of National Iced Tea month, Girlawhirl did a little digging to find out just how her favorite summertime brew got to be so popular. As it turns out, there were plenty of iced tea “punch” recipes circulating throughout the South during the mid to late 1800s and most of them included some sort of liquor, wine or even champagne as a part of the recipe.

But it was during a particularly hot day at the world's Fair in St. Louis in 1905 that the idea of cooling off with a glass of iced tea took off. An Englishman, Richard Blechynden, who was employed as the India Tea Commissioner, realized that since it was so hot out, no one would want to try Indian black tea — at the time, most Americans drank green tea from China and Japan. He rigged some upside down containers, and flowed the tea through chilled lead pipes, cooling it down. It was a hit! And when Prohibition struck, iced tea became even more sought after.

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