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Starbucks can be tempting, even for people who don’t drink coffee. There’s just something about a Starbucks barista crafting your beverage that makes it the most perfect way to start your day. But nowadays, they charge you an arm and a leg for your drink. Throw in a couple of customizations and you could be looking at a price point of $6-$7, the same price as a whole meal!
This is especially annoying for tea drinkers, who just want a plain iced tea. Unfortunately, the current cost for a Venti iced green tea is $3.52 on the app. This may not seem like a lot, but if you order one every day on your way to work, you’re now looking at $17.60 per week. That’s $915.20 in one year! Not to mention that if you don’t specify how you want it prepared, your tea is either going to have way too much sugar or way too much water.
Luckily, there is an easy way to make it at home! Though they used to carry the Tazo tea brand, currently Starbucks uses Teavana teas. The flavor that they use for their iced green tea is Teavana Jade Citrus mint tea. You can actually purchase this online on Amazon or at your local grocery store.
At the store, Starbucks makes their green tea in a concentrated batch that they store with their other tea products. If they need to make a drink, they simply fill the cup with concentrate, add water, ice, and your desired pumps of syrup, and shake it up!
Green tea is a great option that Starbucks offers to their customers and has a lot of health benefits. Studies have shown that green tea can aid in the prevention of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Green tea also has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties, and has been shown to have cholesterol-lowering properties.
Preparation Method
You can choose to follow the instructions on the packaging if you wanted to make a single serving of your Starbucks drink. But by making a green tea concentrate, this recipe can end up saving you a lot of money. You’ll be able to make up to 6 drinks right at home for a fraction of the price.
I like to follow a 1:2 ratio when making a concentrate using tea bags, but it really depends on personal preference. If you like a stronger concentrate, you can add more bags or decrease the amount of water. You can also steep the tea for a longer period of time.
The same goes for sweetening variations. This recipe will have instructions to make a simple syrup that is most similar to the classic syrup they use at the stores. However, you can choose to sweeten your tea with agave syrup, raw sugar, stevia or plain table sugar.
This recipe also works well as a base recipe if you want to add other flavors to your tea, such as vanilla syrup, peach syrup, or milks like coconut milk and soy milk. One of the best ways that I like to use this concentrate is by adding a little bit of lemon juice and maple syrup. It tastes very similar to the Starbucks lemonade but with nutty undertones!
Homemade Starbucks Iced Green Tea (Copycat Recipe)
Equipment
- medium pot of water
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 6 green tea bags
- ice cubes for serving
Optional
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Once water is boiled, turn off the heat.
- Add the 6green tea bags to the hot water, making sure that the paper tags do not go into the water. Allow mixture to sit for about an hour, or longer if you like a stronger tea. You can also have the mixture sit for less time if you like a weaker tea.
- Remove tea bags and gently squeeze off any excess liquid.
- To a cup of ice, add 1/4-1/2 cup of tea concentrate. Top the cup with additional water and sweetener of your choice.
Simple Syrup Instructions
- Combine sugar and water over medium heat and stir until sugar has completely dissolved. Let simple syrup cool and transfer to a glass bottle or jar.
Conclusion
That’s it! Simple enough right? I hope you give this a try and let me know what you think!
Do you love caramel macchiatos from Starbucks? If so, you might want to check out my blog post on how to make your Starbucks caramel macchiato cheaper. You can find the link for that here!
Now I’d like to hear from you:
Did you try this green tea recipe? How did it turn out?
Let me know by leaving me a comment down below!
If you liked this post, be sure to check out my Easy Homemade Marinara Sauce Recipe!
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