The Best Raspberry Iced Tea Recipe

Sweet, refreshing raspberry tea is perfect for family picnics, dinner, and after long workouts and jogs around the park. Making it a great raspberry iced tea recipe you’ll love

Hey PBJ’s! I’m back with another delicious, refreshing beverage y’all are gonna love: Raspberry Iced Tea! I told yall Ive been talking baby steps to living a healthier lifestyle….

Now… while this isn’t healthy at all because of the amount of sugar it has in it, it’s still far healthier than a cold can of acidic Soda, which I’ve completely eliminated from my diet for months now.

So I thought, why not share my delicious raspberry tea recipe with them? I love tea, if ya didn’t know, now ya know, ya know… Lol! The flavors I love best are raspberry and strawberry tea.

Anyway, it’s the summer of 2024, and as I promised, I was gonna be posting a lot of beverage and dessert recipes this summer, and so far, I’ve stood on that…

Late night Wawa Runs

So I battle with insomnia; I have for quite some time now, so staying up late was a thing I always did. Even before I had trouble sleeping, I would stay up late because I think I’m a night owl by nature. 

So getting hungry and munching on snacks and sipping on tea is something I did often throughout the night. Now, some of you may have never heard of Wawa’s… it’s a convenience store that can be found all throughout Philadelphia, especially in the county areas.

The name Wawa is an acronym for walk-away-with-anything! Lol! It also derived from the first headquarters located in Wawa, Pennsylvania. They’re often found at gas stations on highways.

They sell everything from soda and TV dinners, and hot sandwiches, to essential and cosmetic products and they’re often found on the road apart of a gas station. They were mainly in the PA region now they’ve expanded down south. 

Anyways, around 2020 or so, Tina stayed over at my crib and so many people thought she had moved in because she literally never went home. Yall remember Tina from my Lemonade recipe.

Anyway, she and I would catch an Uber to the nearest Wawa, which was usually in the county. We would get a Ceasar wrap, a hot sausage, candy, and ice cream, but what I would always get to drink was raspberry tea. 

My love for Raspberry tea became so obvious that Tina would pick me up some if I ever decided to stay in the car and let her go in and pick up some goods for us…

I didn’t even have to tell her what I wanted to drink. She knew to pick me up the raspberry tea. I don’t know, I love tea… hot or cold, and the addition of raspberries just tastes great.

Outback with Lorretta

As I’ve mentioned before, my aunt Lorretta is one of my hang-out buddies, and we always go to Olive Garden, which I shared a funny story about in this post here: Better Than Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce Recipe.

But we always went to several other restaurants, Miller’s Ale, Texas Steakhouse, and Outback Steakhouse. Those were and still are our go-to spots, and many of those restaurants inspired a lot of my recipes.

Whenever we went to one of these spots, I’d always order a raspberry tea with Lemon for a beverage. I remember our last time at Outback Steakhouse, the waiter came out to take our order while I was in the bathroom.

And Lorretta ordered my food and knew to get me a raspberry drink with lemon without me having to tell her. Haha! Just more proof that my love for raspberry tea is well-known. Lol!

Recipe Ingredients:

• Lipton Black Tea: You can use another brand of black tea if you like just stick with black tea. Dont use green tea, blueberry tea, or your grandma’s favorite hibiscus tea. Black tea has a neutral flavor and make for a perfect raspberry drink so black tea it is.
• Fresh Raspberries: Use fresh raspberries! My favorite is Driscoll’s raspberries.
• Lemons (optional): Lemon adds depth of flavor to pretty much any drink you can think of but if you cant have lemon for whatever reason or just dont like lemon or want to add it, you dont have to its completely optional.
• Spring Water: Sping water is a must! Use a good brand of Spring water such as Poland Spring, Deer Park, Dasani, or whatever gets along with your taste buds. But under no circumstance use spigot water unless you can stomach it! YUCK! It just takes from the integrity of the drink.
• Sugar: Use white sugar to sweeten the drink. Now how much use is completely up to you. Your typical raspberry tea isn’t very sweet but if you like it sweet use a lot of sugar if not you can reduce the amount. Start off with the least amount you think you’d like and continue adding more until it’s to your desired sweetness.

Add-Ins:

Ok, so as y’all have seen plenty of times before, a drink in a pitcher full of a bunch of fruit. We use these add-ins to not only make the drink more appetizing but also to enhance the flavor.

• Raspberries: I add about a handful or 1/4 cup of fresh raspberries.
• Mint Leaves: I use about 4-5 fresh mint leaves

Cleaning the fruit

Ok, so first things first… cleaning the fruit is a MUST for me! I have seen and opened many packages of raspberries, and let me just say that they need to be rinsed really well.

Now, some people clean their fruit with various products, such as baking soda, but I don’t want all that residue stuck in my fruit and ruining the taste of my tea. Plus, raspberries are fragile, so yea…

I clean them, but just with a good shake and rinse. So I just place them in a mixing bowl, cover them with cool water, and move them around with my hands as they circle around the bowl. Then, I pour the water out.

How to make Raspberry iced tea

1. Fill a large pot with 3 quarts of water, and add in the lipton tea bags.
2. Place it over high heat until it comes to a rolling boil, about 12 mins; then turn the fire off.
   
   
3. Meanwhile, blend the raspberries and the remaining 1 quart of water for 30 seconds.
   
   
4. Pour it into a medium saucepan.
5. Place it over high heat, and once it comes to a boil, about 8 minutes, begin scooping out the fuzz.
   
   
6. Once clear, pour the raspberry juice into a large mixing bowl through a strainer.
7. Discard the seeds.
   
   
8. Pour the tea and raspberry juice into the pitcher.
   
9.  Add the sugar and stir well.
10.  Slice a lemon, remove the seeds, then add the lemon juice.
11.  For decoration purposes and to enhance the flavor, add 1/4 cup of fresh raspberries and 4-5 mint leaves.
    
    
12. Sit in the refrigerator to chill.

Tips for best results:

• Let the tea bags sit: Let the tea bags sit in the pot of tea until it’s time to add the tea to the pitcher. This will give your tea a stronger, more potent flavor.
• Make this drink ahead of time: Make this drink early in the day if you plan on having it for dinner or the night before. It taste best when you give all the ingredients time to marry. Drinking it right after is a NO, NO!

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do you have to add raspberries to the drink? No, but I would. It just makes the drink more appetizing and is for decoration purposes. Over the course of time, meaning hours, the additional raspberries will enhance the raspberry flavor.
• How to double or triple this recipe for a big gathering? Well, I’d probably double the recipe first and then make it twice using the doubled amounts. You will obviously need a larger container to put the tea in and you should expect the cooking time to be longer.

Other beverages you might like

• Easy Refreshing Strawberry Lemonade Recipe
• The Best Homemade Lemonade Recipe 
• Easy Bangin Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri Recipe
• The Best Homemade Frozen Margarita Recipe

Equipment:

Ok, so there are a few cooking utensils you’ll need to make this drink. Having these utensils will make the process easier and if you dont have them and need to purchase some just click on the links below.

• Blender: You need a blender to blend the water and raspberries.
• Large Mixing Bowl: You need a large mixing bowl to hold the raspberry juice.
• Medium Saucepan: Get a medium saucepan to boil the tea and raspberry juice
• Strainer: You’ll need a strainer to remove the seeds.
• Knife: Use a knife to slice the lemons.
• Juicer: You dont need this but it will be easier to extract the lemon juice using a juicer.
• Big Spoon: Use a big spoon to stir everything in once you’re done.

That’s it for now yall! If you like this recipe, give it 5 stars, and please share and comment below. To stay in touch, subscribe so you don’t miss any of my new, easy, and delicious recipes coming soon. Love you all, and god bless!

Enjoy, later!

PBJ~

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