(HealthCastle.com) The United States may not have the tea-drinking history of our other tea-drinking nations, but the United States is credited with the invention of the tea bag and iced tea.

While tea consumption in the United States stagnated in the 18th century following the events of the Boston Tea Party, where American colonists destroyed the tea cargo of British ships by dumping the tea into the Boston harbor in protest of the British tea tax, there has been a resurgence of tea drinking in America and now tea can be found in almost 80% of U.S. households. Tea in America is served and consumed hot or cold, any time of the day and on any occasion. Popular black tea and increasingly popular green tea are commonly prepared hot from a tea bag, while iced tea can either be brewed and sweetened or left unsweetened, or prepared using instant iced tea mixes.

The Tea Association of the U.S.A Inc. approximates that 85% of tea consumed in America is iced. The lack of healthful antioxidants in bottled iced tea have been under scrutiny. In a study recently reported on at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), it was suggested that many of these bottled beverages contain fewer polyphenols than a single cup of home-brewed green or black tea. It's also important to note the calorie impact of bottled iced tea; a popular brand, for example, clocks in at 86 calories per 8 fluid ounces.

The United States continues to embrace tea drinking, and in 2009, it was estimated that Americans consumed well over 60 billion servings of tea.

Nutritional Info of iced tea: 1 cup of bottled iced tea = 86 kcal