Black Ice Tea Lemonade

Yummmmm, Black Ice Tea Lemonade

Starbucks serves one up that  is positively addictive. And also positively expensive. So, Have been searching for the right combination recipe, online,word of mouth, to find something that would work.   Decided to combine them .....bought myself one more Black Ice Tea Lemnade form Starbucks, to do a taste test and spent about an hour concocting up a brew. Finally hit upon it. Was rather easy in the long run and just took a bit of tweaking and twiddling. I used  a little less sugar and did it two ways: one the way they did it, and the other in my sweet tea maker....brews up a mean ice tea.

BLACK ICE TEA LEMONADE ( Starbucks)

Boil 5 cups water in a large pot, add 1/2 cup sugar, 3 bags of orange pekoe black tea. Let steep till desired colour. Add 1 can  frozen lemonade concentrate. Then add 5 more cups of cold water.

BLACK ICE TEA LEMONADE ( tweaked)

In Sweet tea make, add 3 good tablespoons loose black tea to drip, or 3 bags of good black tea. Fill water reservoir with water. Scoop out half a can of frozen lemonade concentrate ( either pink or regular), toss in a bit of lemon peel, and a 1/3 of a cup of  sugar , if using.

      

 If you wish to use Simple Sugar Syrup, in place of the grainer sugar, add at the very end.  ( Recipe following) .

       

Fill Sweet Tea Maker Pitcher ( I use one of those curvy Koolaid type pitchers) with ice...right to the very top. Put pitcher under the drip and let it all brew till amber  liquid fills the pitcher. If using sugar syrup add a bit at a time to get the right taste. Then stir madly to dissolve. Dump mixture into serving container; add more ice , if you wish. Should not be too sweet, or too lemony. Should taste just right.

SUGAR SYRUP ( good to have on stock): Boil for 5 minutes 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. No longer. Cool then keep in fridge to sweeten ice tea.