An Iced Tea War?

Forget the cola wars. The next big battle brewing in the soft drink industry is over bottled and canned iced tea. Several beverage makers, including heavyweights like Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola, are flooding grocery shelves this summer with ready-to-drink iced teas to capture what could be a key growth market for the $47-billion-a-year soft drink industry. But the soft drink companies may find it tough winning over purists who think iced tea should be freshly brewed, then poured over plenty of ice in a tall glass. Introduced at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, iced tea’s image has developed as something indigenous to the Deep South. But consumption of iced tea is as high in the Northeast as in the South, with only the West lagging behind.

All figures are for 1991

Consumption (in billions of gallons) Retail receipts Iced tea 1.9 $400 million Bottled water 2 $3.2 billion Fruit juices 2.9 $11.3 billion and drinks Wine 0.482 $12.2 billion Spirits 0.353 $30.1 billion Soft drinks 12.2 $47.2 billion Beer 5.8 $49 billion

Source: Beverage World magazine, Beverage Marketing Corp. and the Tea Council