January is National Hot Tea Month in the U.S.A, with 12 January being National Hot Tea Day. This celebration was instituted by the Tea Association of the USA.

Celebrating Hot Tea Month is as simple as brewing a cup of your favourite tea, and sitting back and relaxing as you sip it down. There is a whole world of teas out there, literally thousands of varieties that are picked at different stages of the tea bushes growth cycle. After picking, the leaves are then carefully aged or mixed together to bring about a unique and desirable flavour and aroma. Hot tea month is a great opportunity to brush up on some American tea related facts.

Did you know that America has tea plantations?

10 American Tea Facts

• America has tea plantations in South Carolina, Alabama, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon. Tea farms are under development in Mississippi, Texas, Idaho and Upstate New York
• Over 158 million Americans will drink tea on any given day
• 87% of Millennials say that they are regular tea drinkers
  

  Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic centre

• In 2016, Americans consumed almost 84 billion servings of tea or more than 3.8 billion gallons – that’s 143845647792  (14 Billion) litres or 57 538 Olympic swimming pools! (WHAT!)
• About 80% of all the tea consumed was Black tea, 16% was Green tea and the small remaining amount was Oolong, White and Dark tea
• The U.S is the third largest importer of tea in the world, After Russia and Pakistan, and the only western country to grown in tea imports and consumption (Bigger than the British!)
• On any given day, more than one half of the American population drinks tea. South and Northwest having the greatest concentration of tea drinkers
• Approximately 80% of tea consumed in America is iced
• In 2014, over 77% of the tea brewed in the United States was prepared using tea bags
• In 2016, total U.S Black and Green tea Imports were approximately 288 million pounds (that’s 130634602.56 Kilograms or 23 327 African Elephants!)

African Elephant Kruger National Park

About the Tea Council of the USA

The Tea Council of the USA is a non-profit association that was formed in 1950 as a joint partnership between tea packers, importers and allied industries within the United States, and the major tea producing countries. It functions as the promotional arm of the tea industry with a primary goal of increasing overall awareness of tea by providing information about its many positive attributes. One of the Council’s primary objectives is the dissemination of key scientific findings about tea to the public. The Tea Council does this in several ways including: funding scientific meetings to bring tea researchers from around the world together to share key information and identify next steps for future research projects; and working with health organizations and international scientists to disseminate information about potential positive health effects of tea consumption on a public level.