Have you had the passion tea lemonade at Starbucks? It's fantastic. Really fantastic. I searched on-line for passion tea and found that this Tazo tea is used and sold by Starbucks! I bought a couple boxes at my local grocery store for $3.49/box. I thought I'd give it a try on my own. Here is what I did. I did not regret!
Each box of tea comes with 20 tea bags. Put them all in the bottom of a gallon pitcher. Then boil 1 gallon of water in a pot on the stove.
Once your water boils, pour it over your tea bags. Let it steep for 7-10 minutes. The longer it steeps, the stronger the flavor.
Once it is finished steeping, use one spoon to scoop out one bag at a time.
Since the water is still hot, I use a second spoon to squeeze out more flavor from each bag before I toss them.
It's such a nice color, and it smells delicious! Once you have all your bags removed, you place the pitcher in the fridge for it to cool.
While you wait, make yourself a nice sandwich. Then, after you've checked the fridge 5-6 times and realize you are in for a bit of a wait, I suggest you leave the house. You really want the mixture to be cold before you drink it. Otherwise, your ice will melt and you'll have a watery drink and you'll wonder what I was raving about. Maybe make the concentrate before bed and do the rest when you wake up!
In order to get the right measurements, I used a starbucks cup. They are selling these re-usable plastic cups right now and I really like mine. Fill your cup with tea to the second line (about 9 oz). Then add your lemonade until you reach the third line (about 3 oz).
When you buy this drink at the store, they pump their "classic syrup" into the drink. It's a clear syrup, so I'm guessing its a basic "simple syrup". To make a simple syrup you just bring 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar to a boil and let cook for a minute or so until the sugar is all dissolved. Let it cool in the fridge and you get a nice sugar syrup. Add this, or any other sweetener you like, to the tea. Adjust it to the sweetness you like.
This next part isn't necessary, but they do it at the store and it makes you feel fancy. If you don't have a shaker, you can use anything with a lid. You just want to be able to shake it up and make it a little foamy.
Pour your tea mixture over your ice.
Put the lid on and shake it like crazy!
Foamy deliciousness!
Pour it back into your cup and try to pace yourself when drinking!
Your Welcome.
Passion Tea Lemonade is my FAVORITE Starbucks drink. If I'm in a hurry I will just soak a tea bag in a to-go cup filled with lemonade and ice, it just takes a while for the Passion Tea to get strong enough since it isn't hot. I almost died when I went to Walmart the other day and saw that they actually make large tea bags to make iced Tazo tea and on the back of the Passion Tea flavor they have a recipe for Passion Tea lemonade and I must say.. It is AMAZING. I polished of the whole two quarts in a day!
Posted by: Erica | May 29, 2012 at 08:32 PM
I love the passion tea also... I've never tried the lemon-aid version... cant wait! But you should NEVER pour boiling water on passion tea (or most herbal teas) it scalds the tea making it bitter. Try covering the tea bags with a small amount of cool water before you pour the NEAR boiling water on them.
Thanks for the recipe!
Happy tea drinking!
Posted by: Tru | May 31, 2012 at 10:42 PM
Thanks for letting me know about the boiling water! Ill try again and see if maybe I dont have to add as much sugar.
-Andrea
Posted by: It's the Life | June 02, 2012 at 04:29 PM
Oh. My. Goodness Gracious! This was amazing. Sipping it right now. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU!!!!!!
Posted by: Monarch | June 03, 2012 at 11:02 AM
They now sell larger bags of the tazo passion tea so you won't have to use as many!
Posted by: Nissi | June 04, 2012 at 03:22 PM
You can but a bottle of their classic syrup, you just have to ask. Some stores are a bit of a pain and will say they can't because some employees don't know any better but you can be bold about it, the price is printed above the bar code on the label. I believe its $5.95
They put 2 pumps for a tall, 3 for a grande, and 4 for a venti
Posted by: vicki | June 04, 2012 at 09:20 PM
I work for Starbucks and this is exactly how we make it :) Tastes really yummy with Rasberry Syrup as well...just so you know. You can buy an entire bottle of the syrup at any Starbucks for around 7ish dollars :) Don't know if that would be any easier!
Posted by: Lacey | June 07, 2012 at 01:47 PM
Can the tea concentrate be saved in the fridge? Or does it all have to be used at one time? :)
-Melissa
Posted by: Melissa | June 09, 2012 at 06:24 PM
Going out to the store right now to get all the ingredients...can't wait to try this! Thanks so much for the recipe!
Posted by: Pam Farago | June 10, 2012 at 08:47 AM
I love their green tea lemonade and this is how you could do that too. Thanks so much for sharing!
Posted by: Stephanie B. | June 11, 2012 at 07:08 AM