I visited a friend's house in the states, who had a ice tea maker, where you would load up tea leaves, water and ice into three seperate containers, plug it in, and have iced tea.
Looks kinda like this I think.
>It would be nice if the North American tea culture, assuming there is a North American Tea culture, could come up with it's own unique vessel.
I believe you're looking for iced tea machines.
A tea maker is pretty much what it sounds like. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005OTXI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_ONASFbNE9HZ8F I've never not had one in the house.
Get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Coffee-2-Quart-Iced-Maker/dp/B00005OTXI/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ice+tea+maker&qid=1644299615&sr=8-1
Add 1/2 cup (100 grams) of sugar to the steeping basket as it's brewing to better dissolve the sugar. Can be adjusted for taste of course. Cheers.
The electric part pretty much is a kettle. You can control how long the tea steeps, and let it drop into the decanter, which is nice.
I had the same problem. I HATE hot drinks. I also don't like coffee, so iced coffee was not an option. I have been trying to stay away from diet sodas, as they're just really not the best for you (although, yeah I still have Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi, and Diet Coke every few days or so). So then I found this.
It makes iced tea in 10 minutes! Super super handy!! I have saved a LOT of money at the grocery store as I am not buying soda so much anymore, plus, the tea is really good! I use Tazo tea because i think it is more flavorful. I bought the variety pack from Amazon, which seems a little steep at first, but you have to remember that each teabag fills that entire pitcher, and there are 36 bags altogether. I bought the variety pack 2-3 months ago and I still have a LOT of bags left. My favorite is the passion tea but I really like the black tea and the blushberry.
I've had iced tea made with this one and I really enjoyed the end product.
Another thing to consider is that you need to plan for the total amount of tea you'll end up with after icing it, not just the hot water you use to steep the leaves in.
I honestly really like the results I get from our Mr. Coffee iced tea maker for basic iced black tea.
We also have a Takeya "flash chill" iced tea brewer, which works better for brewing chilled oolongs and such. Since you control the water temp and steeping length, it's also good for brewing black tea that doesn't really match the "basic iced tea" profile.
But really you could just brew really strong tea in any old tea pot (or just a saucepan) and poor over a pitcher of ice.