Summer Refreshment at Home

This year is our first summer with our Keurig coffee brewer and we have been having fun with the products that are designed to be served over ice, especially the Starbucks products. We just went to the store and stocked up on more iced K-cup coffees and teas! My husband really likes the TAZO Passion Tea K-cups and I really like the iced coffee products. So I thought I would share with you the drink I have been making as my go-to this summer for refreshment. It is seriously so good!

By the way, I know that the Keurig is not for everybody – and it wasn’t for me at first either. But we worked it out and now we are good friends. That is thanks in large part to these Keurig hacks I wrote about over at Ask Anna last year. But I have a new set of hacks just for making iced drinks in the Keurig. Some may seem a little tedious and a little bit overboard but they are what make for perfect iced drinks for summer! I will be sharing these hacks as I share this “recipe” for Passion Tea Lemonade that has been making my summer!

Starbucks Knockoff Passion Tea Lemonade

What you need:

Tazo K-Cups for Passion Tea (click here to order OR I have found these readily available at Target this summer)

Country Time Lemonade Starter (this is a new product that I hope never goes away!)

Ice (lots!)

a 2 cup Pyrex or other heat-proof container with a spout

an insulated cup

What you do:

1. Keurig Iced Drink Hack #1 – remove any k-cup from your machine and run a cycle of hot water through the machine. Dispose of the “dirty” hot water. This will ensure your Passion Tea Lemonade doesn’t taste like coffee.

2. Fill a the 2-cup containter with ice.

3. Slip the Tazo K-cup into your Keurig machine. Place the ice filled container on the drip pad. Select your preferred size (8 oz or 10 oz works for me). Press Start.

4. Keurig Iced Drink Hack #2 – while the K-cup is brewing, fill your insulated cup with ice – fill it up to the top. This will make sure your drink is super cold (a must in the summer).

5. Keurig Iced Drink Hack #3 – stir the brewed tea in the 2-cup container. For some reason the sweetener in cold K-cups settles at the bottom and needs a good stir to be distributed throughout the drink.

6. Pour the prepared tea into the ice filled insulated cup. If you have a standard size insulated cup, you will have enough to make TWO drinks this way. Fill almost to the top, leaving a little bit of space to add the lemonade concentrate.

7. Pour a small amount (less than a tablespoon, to your taste) of the lemonade concentrate (this needs to be well-shaken before use) into the tea and stir very well.

ENJOY!!!

NOTE: once you are finished making tea in your machine, be sure to repeat step 1. This will prevent your coffee from tasting like tea in the morning.