There’re a few things we like about this cocktail recipe: first, the homemade tea-infused simple syrup can be used for a lot of different recipes. We love versatility, especially right now! Second, this drink is the perfect excuse to practice some self-TLC. Make the drink, then take a moment to sit on the lounge chair on your deck, close your eyes, and pretend you’re on that tropical island at an all-inclusive resort being served fancy drinks. Don’t have a deck? Just lean your head out the window (but not too far). Same vibes. Ahh… Third, it’s easy to make! And fourth, it photographs pretty nicely, so it’s great for impressing your social media friends.

This fun tropical drink is also great as a sweet virgin mocktail!

How to make tea-infused Tequila Sunrise

To make this staying-in recipe even more achievable, we’ll provide some suggestions for ingredient substitutions. That way, if you want to make this drink NOW but don’t have a particular ingredient on hand, you can still enjoy it.

Tea-Infused Simple Syrup

Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 5 tea bags Stash Strawberry Pomegranate herbal tea
• 1 cup sugar

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil on the stove. Once boiling, remove from heat and add your 5 tea bags, and steep for 4-5 minutes.
2. Remove tea bags and place the pot back on the heat source. Bring to a slow boil.
3. Slowly add sugar, stirring constantly for 3-4 minutes.
4. Once all the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and let cool.

If you keep your syrup refrigerated, it will stay good for ~2 weeks! This basic tea-infused simple syrup recipe would work with almost any Stash tea. Give it a try with your favorite flavor!

Tea-quila Sunrise Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 oz tea-infused simple syrup
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1.5 oz tequila (or not, if you’re making a mocktail)
• 1.5 cup ice

Directions

1. Fill the bottom of your serving glass with 1/2 cup ice.
2. Add tea-infused simple syrup, swirl.
3. In a shaker add remaining 1 cup ice, tequila, and orange juice. If you prefer your drink virgin, simply skip this step.
4. Shake for 1 minute.
5. Pour mixture slowly down the side of your serving glass to get the layering effect.
6. Top with a strawberry.

Enjoy!

Use what you have

Stash Strawberry Pomegranate Herbal Tea

If you want to stick with the classic Tequila Sunrise look of a red syrup that sits below the orange juice “sunrise”, you’ll want to use one of our red-colored teas. Good options besides Strawberry Pomegranate would be Wild Raspberry Hibiscus, Organic Very Berry, or Pomegranate Raspberry. But really, with this recipe the Strawberry Pomegranate is delish, and we highly suggest it.

Tequila

We are pretty convinced that tequila is the best option for this drink. Vodka is an all right choice for a substitute, but still not ideal. We think the best choice for making this recipe without tequila is to try it as a mocktail. The drink is quite sweet even when you have tequila to balance out some of the sweetness, so if you’re making it as a mocktail you may want to go a little light on the simple syrup.

Sugar

Brown sugar is an easy substitute if you don’t have white sugar on hand. Follow the ratios exactly as stated. Stevia, on the other hand, is much sweeter than sugar, so if you do use stevia we suggest using just 2 tablespoons for every 1 cup of water. Prepare the stevia tea-infused simple syrup the same as you would with sugar (above). Here again, we do feel that sugar is the best option. When we tried this recipe with stevia, it was definitely sweet and still made for a pretty drink, but it didn’t get very syrupy.

Orange Juice

The look of this drink is the reason for its name, so keeping to an orange-colored drink is ideal in order to impress your friends with an Instagrammable cocktail. Yellow and orange-colored options that would be tasty include: pineapple juice, any orange juice mix like orange pineapple, orange strawberry banana, etc.