To this day,coffee remains more popular than tea in the United States;however the U.S.A still consumed 8 gallons of teaper capita annually.While coffee is by far more popular, hot black tea is enjoyed both with meals and as a refreshment by much of the population. Similarly,iced tea is consumed throughout.In the Southeastern states sweet tea, sweetened with large amounts of sugar or an artificial sweetener and chilled,is the fashion. Outside the Southeast, sweet tea is sometimes found, but primarily because of cultural migration and commercialization.
The American specialty tea market has quadrupled in the years from 1993–2008,now being worth $7 billion a year.Similar to the trend of better coffee and better wines,this tremendous increase was partly due to consumers who choose to trade up.Specialty tea houses also started to pop up during this period.