I have a friend that is obsessed with Starbucks Iced Passion Tea Lemonades. She finally convinced me to stop by and try one and I have to say it was pretty darn good!
Personally I prefer Iced Tea Lemonade but this is a nice way to switch it up and it has such a unique flavor. If you haven’t had one of these give it a shot and see what you think. They really are very good.
I played around with a few different things and I think I came pretty close with a recipe you can make in just minutes at home.
The tea that I bought from Starbucks was $2.95- and you can make probably 20 of these for about $6.00 at home.
- Lemonade
- Tazo Iced Passion Tea
- 1 Cup Sugar
- Brew 1 quart of water in a Dutch Oven over high heat until boiling. Add one bag of Iced Passion Tea and remove from heat.
- Let brew for about 5 minutes. Remove tea bag and let the tea cool.
- Add 1⅓ cup of lemonade
- Add ⅓ cup simple syrup*
- Serve over ice. At Starbucks they shake the heck out of it in a shaker. You can do the same if you have a plastic Starbucks reusable cup. Just pull the straw out and put your finger over the hole.
- To make the simple syrup: Add one cup of sugar to one cup of water in a saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until all the sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and let simmer about 10 minutes. Add to jar and let cool.
The nice thing is that you can adjust this to suit your tastes. I like a little extra lemony flavor in my drink so I add the tea above to my glass and then I top it off with a splash of lemonade. If you prefer more sweetness, you can certainly be more generous with the simple sugar.
So this takes a little time to make but once I went to Starbucks and noticed the very tiny measurement of tea versus the great big serving of ice for $3.00, I figured I might want to make this one myself. 😉
I found the Tazo tea at Target for $2.99 a box- you get 6 bags in the box. I usually buy Simply Lemonade but Santa Cruz lemonade would also be great or you could try frozen lemonade as well.
I hope you enjoy!
And here are several other Starbucks Copycat Recipes to try!
- Iced Coffee Recipe (add flavor syrups or chocolate for a mocha)
- Starbucks Hot Chocolate (best hot chocolate and so easy!)
- Homemade Cinnamon Dulce Syrup
- Easy Frappucino Recipe
- Cranberry Bliss Bars (these are amazing!!)
Have you tried making lemonade? We just did for the first time last week for my girls to have a lemonade stand and it was so good! We got our lemon juice at Costco and used this recipe: http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/07/easy-homemade-lemonade.html. Now I’ll need to try this variation! Thanks!
Abby,
No I didn’t see Crystal’s guest post and yes I have Peach lemonade in the fridge right now. I was planning to post lemonade, strawberry lemonade and peach lemonade recipes. I do this stuff myself though and it takes a lot of time to put it all together ;).
Thank you so very much for taking the time & patience of putting this recipe together. I like your friend am rather obsessed with this tea from there. I can’t wait to make this on the weekend & I will probably have to make another batch by Monday. Yummy 🙂
Oh I hope you like it Jill! I just made a pitcher today. Yummy 🙂
You have Simple Syrup with and asterisk but no explanation of what it is. Would you clarify this?
Debra,
The simple syrup recipe is step 6 on the recipe 🙂 Just look down a little bit to see it.
I made this!! Actually, I made it several times because it is so good and sweet!! I love this recipe!! Thank you for posting it again!! I used a raspberry tea and it still turned out great!! Thanks again and have a lovely day!!
Instead of simple syrup can I use agave sweetener?
Lydia,
I haven’t tried it but I bet you could!
So is one of these tea bags equivalent to…4 regular? I have a box of the tea but it isn’t the ‘iced’ version.
Helen,
I am not sure what the difference is between the two- I have only purchased the iced version. The iced tea bags are about 3 inches tall and filled about 1/3 of the way up.
Im in love with this Jar. Please let me know where i can buy it! Thanks
Is there an alternative that I can use if I don’t have a Dutch Oven?
Tayo, you just need a pot large enough to hold the water and not boil over.
So is it supposed to be presweetened lemonade or unsweetened lemonade before I add it to the tea?
Hmm. Melinda- I am not familiar with unsweetened lemonade. Do you mean homemade before simple syrup is added? I have used Simply Lemonade and Santa Cruz lemonade in the past- those are sweetened. This drink can get a little sweet though in my opinion so if you want to tone down the sweetness you can use unsweetened lemonade. Otherwise just standard lemonade is perfect!
I add rasberry syrup as well to mine so delicious!
I would love to try this but I’m diabetic. Anyway to do this sugar free?
Virginia, I actually don’t add the simple syrup myself. I find it gets a little sweet for me. So you can do lemonade and passion tea if you can find a lemonade without sugar? I don’t know anything at all about diabetes so you of course want to consult your Doctor but I did a quick Google search and found this recipe
http://diabeteseaties.blogspot.com/2012/06/diabetic-lemonade-cool-summer-treat.html
And then check the label for the passion tea. I checked my box and it doesn’t say anything about sugar- just fruit juice extract but again I know nothing about diabetes so you probably want to check that out yourself 🙂
I made this with a pot and no dutchoven and i used simply lemonade and i made the simple syrup LOVED it. I also go to starbucks and spend alot on this , so this was great thks for posting this awesome alternative.