5 Quick and Simple Iced Tea Cocktails

It's summertime and a good time to take a lighter approach to tea drinking. Iced tea is always a favorite, but tea can also be used in combination with alcoholic beverages to create unique, enjoyable and TASTY summer cocktails.

Planning a summer gathering? Mojitos are a nice summer cocktail, but if you have a lot of people, muddling the mint and preparing everything can be labor intensive. The great thing about these tea cocktails is that they are easy to scale up in large quantities with minimal work. Plus, your guests will be blown away by the great taste, and the fact that tea is a major ingredient.

These recipes are cafe approved, all either currently being served in our Whistling Kettle cafes here in the Capital Region or were served there in the past.

This article will focus on non-distilled beverages like wine as the alcohol source. This is also ideal for cafes who want to offer interesting alternative cocktails without needing a liquor license. Plus, the alcohol levels are lower so that everyone can enjoy one or two without getting hammered.

Regarding the alcohol, most wine stores will carry small individual or half bottle sizes. You don't need anything fancy. You can keep frozen lemonade concentrate on-hand and use as much as you need. The recipes below are all single serving proportions, but just double, triple the amounts for how much you want.

Garnishes like lemons, oranges, mint are optional. When called for, simple syrup is a 50/50 sugar water mixture.