Friday, January 19th. In the depths of winter, many Americans find soothing warmth in a cup of hot tea, be it herbal, ginseng, black, green or some exotic specialty blend. Lumped together, this appreciation of the brew underlies January’s National Hot Tea Month. Recently, beverage gained renewed notoriety when pop music diva Mariah Carey paused between songs during her New Year’s Eve performance in Times Square to ask for some hot tea. “They told me there would be tea,” she said, looking perplexed. Despite the hellish cold of the evening, there was not.
Found my tea! 🍵 pic.twitter.com/r5EIIbT5Zw
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) January 1, 2018
Tea is the only beverage commonly served either hot or iced and in any season. While tea has been consumed for thousands of years, Americans made two important contributions — inventing tea bags and iced tea — both in 1904.Then came the “Mariah Carey effect.” Many New York City hotels and tea shops have seen an uptick in tea sales since New Year’s Eve.
Recently, America has led in the development of ready-to-drink forms of tea in bottles and cans. Nationwide, there are 640 tea and coffee manufacturing establishments employing about 18,500 workers, and doing $14.3 billion of business annually.
Profile America is in its 21st year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
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