Passion Iced Tea Lemonade

I absolutely love Starbucks' Passion Iced Tea Lemonade. If I could have one every day I definitely would. I have two drinks at Starbucks, passion iced tea lemonades and a calm (chamomile) tea. So as soon as it gets to be anywhere above 55 degrees outside, I run over to the nearest Starbucks for my Passion Iced Tea Lemonade. Passion tea is an herbal tea made with orange peel, hibiscus, mango, cinnamon, and other fruity goodness. Pretty much it's fruity. And the best part? It's caffeine free! I spend a lot of time at coffee shops to study for my CPA exams so this drink has become a bit of an obsession. You know what I'm not obsessed with? Starbuck's prices. I typically get a venti iced tea lemonade and that's somewhere in the neighborhood of $4. Even if I were to get a tall it would still be in the $2-3 range. And for what? a tea bag, lemonade, and sugar syrup? No thank you. I don't even want to think about how much money I've spent on these drinks. Well no longer my friends. I can honestly say that I will never buy another one of those drinks again after I found this recipe. It tastes just like the real thing! The best part is that you can modify the sweetness to your level of satisfaction. I like mine with more tea than lemonade so you get a little bit more tang. This recipe is super easy, the longest part is waiting for all the ingredients to cool before you can mix them together. After that, just put it in a pitcher, serve with ice, and enjoy! Oh and the price! So I bought my box of Tazo Passion Tea for a little under $4. There's 20 teabags so thats $.20 per teabag. I used two teabags so we're up to $.40. The lemonade was $2.99. I used maybe a fifth of the lemonade, probably a little less, so $.60 there. A cup of sugar cost me about $.30. So we're at about $1.30 for over a quart of iced tea lemonade. I'd call that success!

Ingredients:

1 quart water

2 teabags of Tazo Passion Iced Tea

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 1/3 cup lemonade 

Directions:

In a large pot, boil 1 quart of water. After it has finished boiling, take it off the heat. Steep 2 teabags in the pot for 5-10 minutes, then discard the bags. Place the pot in the refrigerator to cool. Then, to make the simple syrup, place 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar in a small saucepan. Boil over medium high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then, let simmer for 10 minutes. Cool in the refrigerator. Once all of the components have cooled, combine the tea with 1/3 cup of the simple syrup and 1 1/3 cup of lemonade. Mix together. Cool in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Serve over ice and with your hand or other covering over the glass shake to get that Starbucks taste. 

Source: Adapted from My Frugal Adventures