Boston Iced Tea (iced tea with cranberry juice)

“Cranberry iced tea” is cited in print since 1959, but the drink became popular in the early 1990s. By at least 1999, the Red Lobster restaurant chain offered its own cranberry iced tea, called “Boston iced tea.” Massachusetts harvests cranberries, as does Wisconsin, New Jersey and several other states.
 
The term “Boston iced tea” is used almost exclusively at Red Lobster, but the name is not trademarked.
   
   
About.com: Coffee/Tea
Boston Iced Tea
From About.com
A wonderfully tart recipe for cranberry iced tea. The name comes from the cranberry bogs in the Boston area (so I’ve been told by a few readers). Regardless, it’s a very refreshing drink for a summer’s day. 
 
Penn State University Digital Library
18 July 1959, Lancaster (PA) Farming:
Cranberry Iced Tea
1 pint cranberry juice cocktail
1 pint orange spice flavored tea (follow directions on box)
Mix cranberry juice and tea. Serve over ice with sprig of mint. Makes one qt.
   
21 May 1986, New Braunfels (TX) Herald-Zeitung, pg. 2B, col. 3:   
CRANBERRY ICED TEA
1 1/2 cups boiling water
6 teabags
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup cranberry juice cocktail
1 quart club soda, chilled
Ice cubes
 
Steep teabags in boiling water for 5 minutes; remove bags. squeezing out liquid; addsugar, lemon juice and cranberry juice cocktail, stirring to dissolve sugar.
 
Just before serving, stir in club soda. Pour over ice cubes in tall glasses. Makes 2 quarts.
 
New York (NY) Times
Iced Tea, Hold the Pitcher
By BRYAN MILLER
Published: Wednesday, August 10, 1994
THE dark, steamy flood of espresso that gushed into snowbound New York City last winter has been followed, in this most tropical of summers, by a torrent of iced tea.
 
Corner groceries now carry bottled and canned iced teas in every shape, color and flavor. To front-porch purists who believe iced tea needs no more than lemon and sugar, some of the zany new combinations seem farcical at best. Strawberry iced tea? Cranberry iced tea?
     
1 July 1995, Doylestown (PA) Intelligencer, Parade Magazine, pg. 19, col. 1:
I met Betty Buckley recently to talk about all this in a drab little Manhattan restaurant called Zen Palate, where she munched a late lunch and I settled for something exotic—a cranberry iced tea,
 
18 June 1999, Fayetteville (NC) Observer, “Here’s the catch: Red Lobster has a new look”:
...fruit drinks and Boston Iced Tea—iced tea with cranberry juice cocktail.
   
The Recipe Link
Title:  Recipe(tried): Boston Iced Tea (like Red Lobster’s) 
Board:  Copycat Recipe Requests at Recipelink.com
From:  cheryl nc 4-17-2002
RE:  ISO: applebee’s rasberry tea
 
Patricia, try mixing equal parts iced tea and cranberry juice tastes great! Red Lobster used to serve it as Boston Tea and it is yummy.
cheryl
   
Google Groups: alt.callahans
Newsgroups: alt.callahans
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Jan)
Date: 01 Aug 2002 08:49:31 GMT
Local: Thurs, Aug 1 2002 3:49 am
Subject: Re: BB Foodie Division—hotdogs
 
I don’t know if this counts as a ‘cran-anything’ but I love cranberry juice and unsweet iced tea together.  They call it Boston iced tea at Red Lobster and it’s really good (imo)
   
Google Groups: ba.food
Newsgroups: ba.food
From: Betty Lee

Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 23:28:44 +0000 (UTC)
Local: Fri, Oct 17 2003 6:28 pm
Subject: Re: Fremont/Newark restaurant for loud group
 
I’ve been through two phases of Red Lobster visitations so far, both down here in San Jose.  During the first phase (years ago), I loved the Boston iced tea.  I used to have three or four refills in one trip! I can’t remember what fruit juice it was supposed to be (either cranberry or raspberry), but it definitely wasn’t supposed to be strawberry.
 
Google Books
The Kitchen Grimoire
By Celeste Heldstab
Published by Celeste Heldstab
2005
Pg. 40:
BOSTON ICED TEA
1 gal. water
1 cubes white sugar
15 tea bags
1 (12-oz.) can frozen cranberry juice concentrate
Put water in large pot, and heat on high until boiling. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Add teabags and let steep until desired strength is acquired. Stir in cranberry juice concentrate, and allow to cool.
     
The Secret Recipe Forum
Anonymous
November 29th, 2005, 03:17 PM
Red Lobster Boston Tea
Mix equal parts Iced Tea and Cranberry Juice.