Homemade Starbucks

I am pretty much in love with Starbucks iced Passion tea lemonade and was horrified to discover that it's a seasonal drink in most stores.  Luckily, I found a way to feed my addiction through the winter, and it was super easy.  Here's how:

Step 1. Buy a tin of Tazo Passion tea.  I bought the regular box, but I've heard that there are "family size" ones that come with a big tea bag (instead of individual ones) intended to make an entire pitcher.  Must look into this.

Step 2. Buy lemonade.  I used Simply Lemonade because it's unsweetened and has yummy lemon pulp, but any kind of lemonade will do.  Or you could go crazy and make your own lemonade.

Step 3. Brew your tea.  Since it's going to be iced tea, brew it double strength.  I boiled 5 cups of water, moved it off the heat and put all of my tea bags in and used a clothes pin to hold all of the strings together.  I let the tea steep for about ten minutes, then strained the tea into a pitcher and put it in the refrigerator.  (My tin only had ten tea bags, but it looks like most normal Tazo packages come with 20.  If your box comes with 20 tea bags, be sure to use 10 cups of water.)

Step 4. Make it happen! I found several "recipes" for iced Passion tea lemonade on the Internet, most of which recommended a 1:3 ratio for the ice, tea, and lemonade, but I ended up using about half tea and half lemonade (ice really doesn't take up THAT much room). Shake and enjoy!

Step 5. OPTIONAL. If you prefer your tea sweetened, you have two choices: 1) buy Starbucks' Classic Syrup, or 2) make your own! Boil 1 cup of water and 1 cup of white sugar together until the sugar has completely dissolved. (You can also use simple syrup to keep cake moist - shh!) Starbucks uses about 3 tablespoons of syrup in 12oz., 4 tbsp in 16oz. and 6 tbsp in 24oz., but it's probably best to go by your own tastes.