Orange-Cranberry Sweet Iced Tea Cocktail

Name: Orange-Cranberry Sweet Iced Tea Cocktail
Prep time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 large navel orange; 3 cups water, divided; 1 cup sugar; 2 Luzianne® Family Size Iced Tea bags*; 2 ½ cups unsweetened cranberry juice, chilled; 1 ½ cups orange juice, chilled, preferably freshly squeezed; 2 cups vodka, chilled; Orange wedges for garnish, optional

Prep Time:

10 minutes

Brew Time:

20 minutes

Yield:

2 quarts

Sit on the porch and watch the sunset with this tasty tea cocktail. Strong tea balances the sweet orange juice and tart cranberry.

Luzianne_® Iced Tea

There’s nothing as refreshing and invigorating as a glass of home-brewed Luzianne_® Iced Tea. Steeped in over a century of tradition, our Iced Tea is a smooth blend of orange pekoe and pekoe cut black teas, carefully selected and specially blended for iced tea.

Got Luzianne_® Iced Tea bags of a different size?

Our handy Luzianne_® Iced Tea Bag Conversion Chart will tell you how many to use for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 large navel orange
3 cups water, divided
1 cup sugar
2 Luzianne_® Family Size Iced Tea bags*
2 ½ cups unsweetened cranberry juice, chilled
1 ½ cups orange juice, chilled, preferably freshly squeezed
2 cups vodka, chilled
Orange wedges for garnish, optional

Directions

Using a vegetable peeler remove the zest from the orange in long strips. Reserve the orange for another use.
Prepare citrus syrup: Add the orange zest, 1 cup water and sugar to a small saucepot. Stir. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until sugar is dissolved, about 90 seconds. Set aside to steep for 20 minutes. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the solids from the liquid, pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids. Place in refrigerator to cool.
While the syrup is cooling make a strong tea. In a pitcher, steep 2 tea bags in 2 cups boiling water for 10 minutes.* Remove and discard tea bags.
Add the chilled fruit juices and the vodka to a large punch bowl. Add tea and chilled citrus syrup to taste, ½ to 1 cup. Garnish with orange wedges. Chill and serve over ice.

If omitting the vodka, increase the cranberry juice to 3 ½ cups and the orange juice to 2 ½ cups.

*Alternatively, steep 2 bags of Luzianne_® Cold Brew Iced Tea in 2 cups cold water for 10 minutes.