Southern elites drank hot tea before the Civil War, and probably some iced tea. When machinery for making ice became affordable ice tea became popular largely in urban centers. The addition of lemon and sweeteners made it a favorite warm weather drank. Until the innovation of the combustion engines resulted in better country roads, the expense of transporting ice from town to farm on a hot day restricted its enjoyment. Rural electrification and affordable home refrigeration devices starting in the 1930s widened peoples familiarity with sweet and cold ice tea. Historian Joe Gray says, People appreciated the refrigerator for the ice cubes it produced for making iced tea more "than for any of its other services.” (Joe Gray Taylor, Eating, Drinking, and Visiting in the South: An Informal History (Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, 1982),128.
