Tea Accompaniments

From colonial days, sugar has been the most important addition to tea, whether the beverage is drunk hot or cold. Visitors to early America commented on this practice in 1795, and as sugar became cheaper late in the following century, its use soared. Two teaspoons or three lumps to each cup was considered a restaurant industry standard in the 1890s, a decade in which granulated white sugar became affordable. Before the mid-nineteenth century, cone sugar was part of the tea service ritual involving women carefully cutting the cones into cubes with specially designed sugar nippers. By the 1940s, over two-thirds of all tea consumed was drunk with sugar in it. Most canned and bottled tea is sweetened.