Hard Lemon & Raspberry Iced Tea

Debbie and I have recently discovered hard iced tea in cans called “Hey Y’all’s”.  They are our new favorite store-bought cocktails as they are not super sweet and have a great tea flavor.  It was these cocktail-in-a-can drinks that inspired us to try making a tea based cocktail for ourselves and I have to say that these are 100 times better than the canned version.  Which isn’t too big a surprise, but we didn’t know that these would turn out THIS good!  But they did!  Fresh squeezed lemonade, sweetened with a touch of honey, mixed with strong steeped black tea and raspberry vodka.  So freeking good!

We do enjoy our Hey Y’all’s and the boys like YEE Haa’ing when we ask for one (cuz Debbie called them that when she asked for one once and it stuck) but we wanted to make our own version with no sugar, just a touch of honey for sweetness, and especially no ingredients we couldn’t pronounce.   My brother is having a pool party this weekend for his birthday and I know what Debbie will be drinking poolside.  But keeping them to herself otherwise she will be inside making drinks all day cuz everyone will want one!

Unfortunately I won’t be there this weekend.  I will be slaving away packing up my house and getting ready for our move in a couple weeks.  But maybe I should make a pitcher of these so Kevin and I can relax on the deck or in the hot tub after a long hard day of packing.  Yup, I think that’s a great idea…

We used a black tea for this cocktail that was flavored with a little bit of raspberry, but you could use whatever black tea you like.  We just recommend brewing with a loose leaf tea as you will get a far superior flavor.  I actually got this tea at a tea shop that had 300 different kinds of tea!  I sniffed a whole bunch of them and got a few.  I cant wait to go back and stock up on some more flavors.

Since we first made this Hard Lemon & Raspberry Iced Tea, Debbie especially has been experimenting with tea cocktails.  She can’t drink vodka and water with lime like I love.  She needs some flavor in her drink, but doesn’t like the sugar that comes with most juice.  Tea is solving that problem for her and in a very delicious way!  I’m sure we will be sharing more tea inspired cocktails in the near future.

Have a great weekend everyone!

5 from 1 vote

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Hard Lemon & Raspberry Iced Black Tea

Author Cooks with Cocktails

Ingredients

• FOR THE LEMONADE
• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup honey
• 3 - 4 cups waterFOR THE BLACK TEA
• 1/2 cup loose leaf black tea
• 5 to 6 cups of boiling waterFOR THE TEA MIX
• 2 cups lemonade
• 3 cups tea
• 1/8 cup honeyFOR THE COCKTAIL
• 2 oz raspberry vodka
• 4 - 6 oz tea mixture

Instructions

1. First make the tea. Boil the water and then pour the hot water over the tea leaves. Let it sit for a while to steep and cool down to room temperature.
2. Next make the lemonade. Squeeze the lemons and mix the juice with the honey and water. Stir it well.
3. When the tea has cooled down, mix the amounts of tea, lemonade, and honey in a large container.
4. When you are ready to make your cocktail, fill a glass with ice and pour in 2 oz of raspberry vodka then fill the glass with the tea mixture.
5. Stir well and serve!