Summer in a Glass: Hibiscus Iced Tea + Hibiscus Vodka

It's officially mid-June and it's been cold and rainy. Summer should be here by now, but it isn't. So on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

It looks like this outside, so I used this stuff to make this!

I love all things hibiscus -- my mom was born in Hawaii while my grandpa was stationed there and I traveled there a couple times as a kid. My grandma even grows amazing hibiscuses here in Minnesota, which is quite the labor of love.

I got into hibiscus iced tea on its own a few months ago, but I've been hankering to make it into a drink ever since I saw Giada do it. Enter: Absolut Hibiskus, a vodka flavored with hibiscus and pomegranate. Combined with The Republic of Tea's Natural Hibiscus Tea, Tazo Passion Tea (a blend flavored with hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, and passion fruit), and a little squeeze of lemon juice, it's a perfect refreshing summer drink...even if it's not summery outside.

Here's how you make the tea:

Clockwise from the tea bags: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, and Step Oops.

Step 1: Get your teabags! The teas I used recommended 1 tea bag per 6-8 oz. of water and to double the number of tea bags for iced tea. I used 64 oz. of water, which means I should have used 16 tea bags...but those guys are expensive, so I cheated a little and used 8 of the Natural Hibiscus Tea and 6 of the Passion Tea.

Step 2: Boil 8 cups of water and get a pitcher ready.

Step 3: Once your water is boiling, dump all your tea bags into the bottom of the pitcher, and then dump the water on top of it. Steep for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the tea bags from just floating on the top.

If you are me and you forgot to take the paper tags off the Passion tea bags, go to Step Oops. If not, go to Step 4.

Step Oops: If you don't take off those paper tags, the boiling water disintegrates them and they muck up your tea. My quick solution was to grab an clean old t-shirt and drape it tightly over the pot I used to boil the water. I poured the water through the cloth into the pot to strain out all the paper pulp and tea bags. Bonus: straining also got rid of the usual tea bag debris. It wouldn't hurt to do this (with a cheesecloth) even if you don't make the paper mistake, as it resulted in a crystal clear and fancy cocktail worthy iced tea base. Pour back into the pitcher and cool in the fridge.

Step 4: Fish out the tea bags and put it in the fridge to cool.

You can use the cooled tea for the drink below, or you can drink it straight up like regular iced tea. It's very tasty with a little simple syrup stirred in, but I like it just as well plain.

Here's how you make the drink:

Left to right: Step 1, Step 2, Step 3.

Step 1: Fill a glass up with ice, then pour in hibiscus vodka to roughly that spot the arrow is pointing to.

Step 2: Fill it the rest of the way with the cooled hibiscus iced tea (again, you can add simple syrup if you want it a little sweeter).

Step 3: Squeeze in a little lemon juice and drop in a lemon wedge, and then stir it up! I like the lemon juice (lime would be good, too) because it takes away most of that boozy bite.

There you have it, HOT PINK summer in a glass. Just don't spill it on anything, because it is COLORFUL.