The Best Iced Tea Lemonade Recipe

Are you an iced tea fiend? Honestly, it’s one of my favorite things to drink when I’m studying, and I’ve found myself purchasing many an individual raspberry iced tea at the student store when I was going to pull an all-nighter or just needed something refreshing.

Ordering an iced tea lemonade is one of my favorite drinks at Starbucks, but when I realized just how much of it I wanted compared to how much I was paying for it, I figured there had to be an easier way.

And there is.  

Here’s a simple way for you to make your own iced tea lemonade or raspberry iced tea at home.

Ingredients and Substitutes

When it comes to this recipe, you have the option of choosing what type of juice to make it with, or if you want to even hand-make your lemonade, too…I can be a little lazy when it comes to that (but if you want to try, here’s a good link to do so). Good substitutes for lemonade are often any sort of cranberry/raspberry type juice, the stronger the better.  In this case, I used Cranberry Mango juice. Experiment and comment which kind you liked the best below!

You will need:

• A jug or liquid container of some kind
• Tea
• Juice
• Sugar
• A stirrer
• Ice

The Tea

You will need around 7 teabags. Personally, I like to use a good English black tea, but it doesn’t have to be expensive or fancy. You can also experiment with making it with green tea as well.

Sun Tea Vs Cheat-tea

If you want to make sun tea, you can use water of any temperature and leave your jug out to soak in all of the flavors of the tea. If you do this, make sure to add the juice as well, as you want them to blend in together. Otherwise, I often will pour in some hot water to get the process started sooner. Just make sure you don’t try to put a hot jug into the fridge too soon, especially if its made of glass. The shock of the two temperatures can cause the glass to crack, and you don’t want to let all of that tea go to waste!

Sweet

Add sugar, or another form of sweetener to taste. I’m a bit of a making-it-up-as-I-go-along kinda gal, but 1/3 cup of sugar should be enough. If you don’t have a sweet tooth, feel free to skip this step.

Mix Well

Especially if you’re using hot water, you’ll want to mix the sugar in while it’s still hot to help it melt efficiently. 

Juice

Personally, I tend to prefer the drink to be 2/3 juice or lemonade and 1/3 water, but you can also try it with more tea and less juice for a stronger tea taste.

Enjoy

All that’s left to do is add ice and enjoy. The longer you let the tea steep the better it’ll be! 

One-Cup Wonder

You can do a short version of this recipe by making tea with a couple inches of hot water, a tea bag, and filling the rest of the cup with juice or lemonade. Once it’s cool, add ice, and you’re good to go!

Pro-tip: 

Once you’ve added the juice, be careful when leaving it out in the window for sun tea. If the day is humid or hot enough your iced tea can get mold! Not a good look…or a good taste. Ew. 

Have you ever made your own version of iced-tea lemonade before? What is your favorite way to make it? Let us know in the comments below!

Featured Image Source: my own