Raspberry Grapefruit Iced Tea with Lime

We had a party a couple weeks ago for Chris’s birthday. I made a cake. It was delicious. If you missed my last post about the party and the Chocolate Cake with Tea-Infused Berry Frosting you should check it out. 

Are you back? Great. Then you know we kept the food for this party fairly simple except for the cake. 

Well… and the drink.

I really wanted to make a summery drink for this party. Plus, we have a 2 gallon drink dispenser that was just begging to be used. Unless you have a family of 20, you know that huge drink dispenser isn’t getting used too often. Now was its chance...

After some trial and error testing different proportions of tea and juice and sugar and lime, I came up with a drink that was just sweet enough with plenty of tartness. I really don’t like my drinks excessively sweet. I would be a terrible southern belle. No sweet tea for me please.

I landed on a delicious concoction of Raspberry Balsamico Herbal Tea from Teavana, fresh grapefruit juice and lime juice. 

The Raspberry Balsamico Tea is incredibly flavorful. The tea itself contains raspberries, grapes, blueberries and strawberries mixed with juniper berries, elderberries and red currants. Rose petals, hibiscus flowers and balsamic vinegar round out the flavors. It’s a very fruit forward tea and perfect for Chris’s birthday since he loves raspberries. 

Note: Teavana has gone out of business :( I would recommend Red Raspberry tea from Harney & Sons or Frozen Raspberry tea from Davids Tea. Any raspberry tea will work great.

I’ve been on a bit of a grapefruit kick lately so I knew that grapefruit juice was going to make it into the mix. Palomas for me please. 

And lime just seemed like a given. 

One thing I knew all along was that this was going to be a non-alcoholic drink. If you want friends to drive home safely from your party make sure they have a good option to do that. Plus, this drink works well with a variety of alcohols. Just put rum, gin and vodka next to your drink dispenser and guests can make their own fun.

Some things to know about this drink:

• The tea is made close to double proof. This is on purpose. We add so much ice to this mixture that the overall flavor evens out in the end.
• Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice is pretty tart which is why there’s a decent amount of sugar in this recipe. It sounds like a lot but I promise, it isn’t overly sweet.
• If you can’t find fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, go ahead and use what you can find. Just make sure to use less added sugar since your grapefruit juice is likely to already be sweetened.

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Raspberry Grapefruit Iced Tea with Lime

Makes enough for a 2 gallon drink dispenser.

Note: Teavana has gone out of business :( I would recommend Red Raspberry tea from Harney & Sons or Frozen Raspberry tea from Davids Tea. Any raspberry tea will work great.

INGREDIENTS

15 cups water (120 oz)

1/2 cup + 2 tbs raspberry tea

6 cups real grapefruit juice (48 oz)

⅓ cup lime juice

3 cups sugar

12 cups ice (3 quarts)

Slices of lime and raspberries if desired

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat 15 cups of water on the stove until bubbles begin to form but just before the water comes to a full boil.

2. Turn off heat and add 3 cups sugar. Stir to help dissolve the sugar. Add raspberry tea and let steep for 7 minutes.

3. While tea is steeping, prepare a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth over a second pot or the drink dispenser you plan to serve from (if it can withstand high heat).

4. When tea is done steeping and sugar has been completely dissolved, carefully spoon or pour the tea mixture through the sieve or cheesecloth, removing all loose tea.

5. Let the tea cool. This may take a few hours.

6. Once tea is cool, add 6 cups real grapefruit juice and ⅓ cup lime juice. Transfer to drink dispenser if you haven't yet.

7. Just before guests arrive, add about 12 cups of ice plus slices of fresh lime and raspberries if desired.

8. Serve with fun plastic straws. Rum, gin and vodka make great additions to this drink if your guests want to get spicy.

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