The calorie-free beverage steeped from leaves is quite literally our cup of tea -- or more precisely, our glass of tea.

Years before trendy cafes put ice into coffee and christened it with an exotic-sounding name, there was iced tea. Today, more than eight out of every 10 servings of tea we take in the U.S. are chilled.

"Consumers like the taste. It is light and refreshing," said Joe Simrany, president of the Tea Association of the USA. "Plus, it is increasingly associated with a great many health benefits."

Richard Blechynden is commonly credited for popularizing the summertime beverage more than a century ago, when he was manager of the Indian tea pavilion at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Blechynden served black tea over ice to great fanfare in 1904, though cookbooks dating back to the early 19th century show that American housewives already had been enjoying chilled tea as an ingredient in summertime punches.

Founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea dies in Oregon at age 87

There was a time when most people were content drinking mediocre coffee. Cup by cup, Alfred Peet helped change that.

Peet, 87, who founded Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc. and is considered a forefather of specialty coffee, died Wednesday at his home in Ashland, Ore.

Peet, born in the Netherlands in 1920, learned the coffee business as a boy while helping with his father's small roastery and later turned his appreciation for specially roasted beans into what became a national trend.

"He was an artist," said George Vukasin Sr., chief executive of Oakland-based Peerless Coffee Inc., who met Peet in the 1970s while both men ran specialty coffee companies. "He was very particular on what he sold to his customers. He wanted the best."

Peet arrived in San Francisco in 1955 and took a job with a coffee bean importer.