Sweet & Fruity Sips: Green Tea Passion Fruit Agua Fresca

Summer is here and that means long days full of sunshine and the chance to make happy memories with friends and family. Are you an entertainer who loves having people around to your home? Maybe you’re looking for a nice drink to cool down and relax in this warmer weather? This Green Tea Passion Fruit Agua Fresca is great for both of those things!

For those of you who don’t know what this drink is, you’re in for a treat! Agua fresca is typically made by blending fruit with carbonated water to make a sweet and bubbly drink. For this recipe we used iced tea in place of plain water for a twist on this refreshing summer treat. I can imagine enjoying a nice glass of this one by the pool -- or maybe inside with the A/C cranked up on high. Either way it’s perfect for cooling down on a hot summer day.

Making Passion Fruit Agua Fresca

Our recipe utilizes the Abundance Blend elderflower green tea with passion fruit. By making this tea into an iced tea rather than hot, we substitute the amount of water in this recipe and gain a beautiful green tea and passion fruit flavor to enhance our agua fresca. This drink is easy to make, only taking about 10 minutes to create. When served in a glass it will wow your guests with its gem-colored appearance.
The ruby red color of this drink is derived from berries. I used passion fruit to really bring out the flavors in the passion fruit tea. By thinking about the flavor notes in your tea, you can craft a beautiful and unique summer drink from just about any tea. Substitute the fruits in this recipe for what is in season and readily available around you. I used summer berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries), but I think mango would also work really well. The flexibility of this recipe means that you get a chance to get your creative juices flowing and put your own twist on this drink.

You may need some equipment on hand to make this passion fruit agua fresca. A blender or food processor to pulse fruit will come in handy and make whipping up this drink a breeze. If you don’t have a blender, you could use a muddler (from a cocktail making kit) or a wooden spoon to squash your chosen fruits and release their flavors that way. However, using a muddler will be less efficient and will result in your drink not being as smooth. The better your blender, the smoother your agua fresca will be.
Prepare your iced tea according to your preferred method; I’m a fan of cold brewed tea. If you hot brew, you’ll want to brew your tea nice and strong to get the best flavor out of it before placing it in the fridge to cool down. It’s important to use the fridge to cool it down as adding ice cubes can water down your tea too far. As we’ll be adding carbonated water to this drink later, you don’t want to water the flavors down too far by adding ice cubes in the cooling process. For the best result, make your iced tea the day before and keep it cold in the fridge overnight.
If you make up your iced tea in advance and are able to use a blender, following this recipe only takes ten minutes maximum. For this drink to get its lovely fizz, you can use a soda stream if you have one. I don’t have one so I used some mineral water, which worked well. You could also use seltzer or sparkling water.