June 10 is National Iced Tea Day.
With all the hoopla surrounding state politics today, it almost got by our editorial staff. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t honor National Iced Tea Day by downing about a gallon of Schuylkill County’s favorite brew, Guers Iced Tea.
Guers Iced Tea
We’re not sure how much Guers Iced Tea is consumed locally on a daily basis. But if you figure there are about 140,000 residents in Schuylkill County and the average local starts drinking it in utero, we’d say that equals about 50 gazillion pints of tea per day.
Seriously, it’s a lot of tea.
Did you know that in 2019, Guers Iced Tea celebrated its 50th birthday?
And the local brand is so popular that it’s spawned the launch of several alternative tea products in those 50 years as the folks out along Tumbling Run Road capitalize on their success.
Earlier this year, Guers announced the launch of its new Raspberry Iced Tea. We’ve tried it. Love it. It’s a cleaner, lighter tasting tea than the “high test” tea you find fully stocked in stores across the coal region.
Before that, they introduced a Lemon Tea Cooler (meh), and a Green Tea, Diet Green Tea, and a Sugar Free Iced Tea.
While a lot of people seem to think Guers Iced Tea is some common instant tea mix that’s sold all over the place, that’s not true. Guers Dairy says its famous Iced Tea is “specially blended tea powder” and its combined with the “finest grade of cane sugar” (not that High Fructose Corn Syrup garbage), and mountain spring water.
You literally can’t find a duplicate of it even if other brands use similar packaging.
Coincidentally, there’s a local brand of Iced Tea in western Pennsylvania called Turner’s and it’s just about as popular as Guers is here. It, too, is produced by a local dairy company. They introduced their tea 3 years after Guers launched its product here in Schuylkill County. Turner’s has been “fueling yinzers” since 1972.
Check out their product. The similarities are uncanny:
(Image: TurnerDairy.net)
National Iced Tea Day
According to NationalIcedTeaDay.com, tea is the second-most popular beverage in the United States. Only water is more popular. And the ready-to-drink tea market brings in $5.2 billion in sales annually.
Here are some other quick facts from that site:
- 85% of the tea consumed in the US is iced tea.
- More than 80 billion servings of tea are consumed every year in the US. That’s 3.6 billion gallons!
So, whether your favorite is the local brew, some national brand, or for Heaven’s sake, Icy Tea, be sure to enjoy a glass or carton or plastic half-gallon or gallon today!
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