Caffeine and You

Coffee, tea, chocolate, energy drinks, caffeine and people

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT THIS BLOG
    • About Kate Heyhoe
    • Archive
  • BUZZ
  • CAFFEINE BASICS
  • RECIPES
  • SHOP
  • Contact
  • March 25, 2023
You are here: Home / Buzz / Modern Rush: Ready-to-Drink Tea

Modern Rush: Ready-to-Drink Tea

May 27, 2013 By Kate Heyhoe

Share Button

bottled iced tea

Ready-to-Drink Tea: A $3.5 billion market

Cold, Instant, and On-the-Go: How We Like Our Tea 

More Americans go inside convenience stores to buy caffeinated beverages than for any other reason.

The tripod of modern living stands on three legs: Convenience, time-saving, and mobility. Just look at digital devices, fast food, and caffeine. Seattle became famous for its drive-through coffee spots. Coffee is a cash cow for McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. And now tea is beating out coffee and soda at some cash registers.

Caffeinated drinks – including coffee, iced tea, sodas and energy drinks – are what keep the local mini-mart in business, and what keeps their mobile customers on the go-go-go. Coffee’s hot all year, but in summer, iced tea sales soar.

Instant iced tea was the big 20th century boost for tea. It first entered the consumer market in 1953, and when Lipton Instant Iced Tea arrived in 1958, iced tea really took off.

When Snapple introduced bottled iced tea almost thirty years later, it created a whole new beverage category: Ready-to-Drink tea is now led by brands like AriZona, Fuze, Honest Tea, Sweet Leaf, and the giants Lipton and Nestea.

Bottom line: When tea became instant, sales took off. When it became cold, instant and ready-to-drink, tea joined the ranks of coffee and colas as a powerful caffeinated player – at least in the U.S. In Asia and other substantial portions of the globe, hot tea remains the main caffeinated beverage, but iced tea increasingly appeals to a young, cosmopolitan market.

U.S. Tea Sales Catching Up

Overall, tea is second only to water as the most widely consumed beverage worldwide, a fact often mentioned.

But did you know: More tea is consumed worldwide than coffee, chocolate, alcohol and soft drinks combined. After the American Revolution, tea’s popularity declined severely in the U.S. A hundred and fifty years later, specialty blends gave tea a big boost, especially Constant Comment in 1945 and more recent upscale brands like Republic of Tea and Tazo (now owned by Starbucks). Reports of the health benefits from tea’s antioxidants also kicked up consumption.

According to the Tea Association of the USA:

  • Approximately 85% of tea consumed in America is iced.
  • Over the last ten years, Ready-To-Drink Tea has grown by more than 17.5 times. In 2011, Ready-To-Drink sales were conservatively estimated at $3.50 billion
  • In 2011, over 65% of the tea brewed in the United States was prepared using tea bags. Ready-to-Drink and iced tea mix comprises about one fourth of all tea prepared in the U.S., with instant and loose tea accounting for the balance. Instant tea is declining and loose tea is gaining in popularity, especially in Specialty Tea and coffee outlets.
  • On any given day, about one half of the American population drinks tea. On a regional basis, the South and Northeast have the greatest concentration of tea drinkers.

As with coffee in the 20th century, the perception of “premium” quality gave tea traction. During the last fifty years, tea has been marketed as a special treat, bringing caffeine, pleasure, and reward to the tea-drinking brain.

So next time you pop into a mini-mart to pay for your gas, take a look at the 53 or so brands of tea in the cooler. Since ready-to-drink iced tea has brought a new level of passion to consumers, you’d be right to say it’s a really “hot” product.

 

Filed Under: Buzz, Tea Tagged With: beverage, tea

RECENT POSTS

The Nutella Cookbook: Steal This Book?

The Nutella Cookbook: Steal This Book?

Recipes

Would you steal Nutella? In 2013, thieves stole $21,000 worth of Nutella from a warehouse in German  [...]

Nutella and Orange Whoopie Pies

Nutella and Orange Whoopie Pies

Recipes

The combination of Nutella and orange makes eating these little cakes complete bliss… Makes 15 Wh  [...]

Nutella Truffles

Nutella Truffles

Recipes

Bite into one of these truffles and what a surprise – a caramelised hazelnut in the centre! Makes  [...]

Mini-Nutella Croissants

Mini-Nutella Croissants

Recipes

Treat yourself at breakfast or teatime with these mini-croissants made with the famous hazelnut choc  [...]

5 Ways Coffee Fights Cancer

5 Ways Coffee Fights Cancer

Buzz, Coffee, Health Effects

Will coffee help keep you cancer-free? Possibly. Coffee reduces the risk of certain cancers, acco  [...]

Sparkling Moroccan Mint Tea

Sparkling Moroccan Mint Tea

Recipes, Tea

For Sparkling Moroccan Mint Tea, just add carbonated water (see below). I've made this with green, b  [...]

5 Ways to Up Coffee's Caffeine

5 Ways to Up Coffee's Caffeine

Buzz, Coffee

Wanna Up Your Cup? Tweaking Coffee's Caffeine The amount of caffeine in your coffee depends on   [...]

Coffee + Cocoa + Chile Rub

Coffee + Cocoa + Chile Rub

Recipes

A pot of cowboy coffee and steaks on the campfire? Hmmmm.... maybe a backyard grill and icy marg  [...]

Why Bees Buzz to Caffeine

Why Bees Buzz to Caffeine

Buzz

As it turns out, bees like caffeine. Maybe that's why they buzz... Bees, as we know, are importan  [...]

No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Mini's

No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Mini's

Recipes

When it's 100 degrees outside, I head indoors to make cheesecake – miniature no-bake cheesecakes, in  [...]

Chocolate's Next Conquest: India

Chocolate's Next Conquest: India

Buzz, Chocolate

In Western tradition, a dinner guest brings a bottle of wine as a host or hostess gift. In India,  [...]

Espresso-Flavored Char Shu with Java Marmalade

Espresso-Flavored Char Shu with Java Marmalade

Recipes

You know those glazed pieces of pork hanging in Chinatown restaurant windows? This is my coffee-spik  [...]

Iced Coffee Syrup, for Sparkling Coffee Spritzer

Iced Coffee Syrup, for Sparkling Coffee Spritzer

Recipes

Coffee Spritzers, here we come! Think coffee with cool, bubbly carbonation. These babies go down   [...]

10 Best Coffee Quotes From *Living* People

10 Best Coffee Quotes From *Living* People

Buzz, Fun

10 Best Coffee Quotes from Living People - Tired of quotes as stale as yesterday's coffee,   [...]

Brain Candy: Sugar May Boost Coffee's Effects

Brain Candy: Sugar May Boost Coffee's Effects

Buzz, Caffeine Effects

Sugar + caffeine = synergy? Combo boosts memory + attention, says one study.  Glucose and caffein  [...]

Hit-and-Run Driver Pleads "Starbucks Defense"

Hit-and-Run Driver Pleads

Buzz, Caffeine Effects

True story: Excessive caffeine, a mental disorder, and no sleep lead to tragic consequences... At  [...]

Cheating Death: Do Coffee Drinkers Live Longer?

Cheating Death: Do Coffee Drinkers Live Longer?

Buzz, Caffeine Effects, Coffee, Health Effects

Death is inevitable, but a major study shows... "Coffee drinkers have a lower risk of death." I re  [...]

Swirled Matcha-Chocolate Brownies

Swirled Matcha-Chocolate Brownies

Recipes

An Easy Upgrade: Swirled Matcha-Chocolate Brownies By Kate Heyhoe When my chocolate Jones ne  [...]

SHOPPING


All Products

Categories

Tag Cloud

ABA addiction alcohol antioxidant appetizer beet beverage Beverage Lobby brain Brazil cacao caffeine caffeine amount caffeine effect caffeine effects cancer candy cappuccino carcinoma cassina Chapter Chapter 04 Chapter 05 Chapter 06 Chapter 07 Chapter 08 cheesecake children chile chocolate chocolate recipe Coca-Cola cocoa cocoa nib cocoa powder coffee coffee drink coffee recipe coke cola cola nut cookie dietary supplement dopamine dose energy drink energy gel energy shot FAQ FDA food food label Fun grilling guarana gum habit half-life hazelnut health health effect health effects history infographic java kids lethal dose marinade memory mental focus mental health military miniature dessert mint mood Mt. Dew neurotransmitter news Nutella orange people pork product recipe risk safety salad seasoning soda soft drink sugar tea teacup teen theanine theobromine trend withdrawal women yerba mate

CONNECT

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Follow @KateHeyhoe

 
 

© 2017, Kate Heyhoe and CaffeineAnd You.com. All Rights Reserved

Meet Kate

About Kate Heyhoe

I'm an author and journalist specializing in food and cooking. Caffeine Basics is my ninth book. I've written about the U.S. wine industry, international foods, shrinking your "cookprint," and cooking with kids. Great Bar Food at Home was a James Beard Award finalist, and Cooking Green: Reducing … More

Policies and Archives

  • Archive
  • Policies

Sites We Like

  • Coffee Krave
  • FoodWine.com
  • Sprudge
  • The Tea Stylist

Copyright © 2017 Kate Heyhoe · Log in