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A quick history of iced tea in South Carolina

June 10th is National Iced Tea Day!

COLUMBIA, S.C. — June 10th is National Iced Tea day!

Officials at the South Carolina State Library talked about the history of tea in South Carolina. 

"What's interesting about iced tea in the United States is that South Carolina is the only state in the US that commercially grows tea," says Ellen Dunn, who serves as the public information coordinator at the library, "Tea first came to the United States in 1779 and it wasn't until the late 1800's that it started to be grown off of the South Carolina coast." 

Dunn says tea was initially grown on Wadmalaw Island, which is where  the Charleston Tea Plantation is located. 

Hot tea was popular, Dunn says it and it took a while for people to start liking their tea cold. 

"A neat little fact about iced tea is that it really wasn't very popular until 1904, there was a very clever vendor that realized his hot tea wasn't selling so he decided to make it cold and iced tea sold like hot cakes." Dunn said.

And although tea is sold throughout the country, Dunn says the true place to get tea is in the South. 

"You don't find good sweet tea until you come to the south," Dunn says."We like to say the tea leaves may have been brought over by the French but the South were the ones who added the sugar to make it sweet."

For more info on the history of tea in the South, visit  here.

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