Strawberry Lemon Drop Iced Tea Cocktail — Boozy or Mocktail

Cold-brewed strawberry lemonade tea, a sugared rim, and your choice of vodka or virgin. This is the Berry Tart Lemon Drop — made your way.

Strawberry Lemon Drop Iced Tea Cocktail — Boozy or Mocktail

☕ The Refresher · Boozy or Mocktail

The Berry Tart Lemon Drop

There's a version of a lemon drop martini that involves muddling fresh strawberries in a shaker at 4pm on a Tuesday, and there's this one — where you drop a pod in a jar the night before and let the fridge do the muddling for you. This is the second one. Cold-brewed Strawberry Lemonade Cold Brew Tea Pods stand in for the muddled fruit, a spoonful of rose or tea syrup does the sweetening, and a sugared rim does the rest of the work. Shake it with vodka for the porch, or leave it out for the pitcher you're bringing to the school pickup line. Both versions taste like something you'd order, not something you'd apologize for.

Yield

1 drink

Active Time

5 minutes

Cold Brew

6 hrs–overnight

Vibe

Refresher

The Tea That Makes This Work

Strawberry Lemonade Cold Brew Tea Pods are a caffeine-free herbal blend — strawberry, lemon, hibiscus, rose hips — built to cold brew overnight with zero straining. Drop the pod in, forget about it, and by morning you've got a base that's already doing half the flavor work a muddled-fruit lemon drop usually needs. You could brew a pitcher of any lemony iced tea for this — but this is the one the recipe was built around.

Shop Strawberry Lemonade Tea Pods →

One pouch is four pods, and each pod makes about a quart — enough for a few rounds of this. Sold out or want a slightly different note? Strawberry Serendipity loose leaf makes a good stand-in — it's berry-and-hibiscus forward without the lemon built in, so steep it double-strength and add an extra squeeze of fresh lemon juice to bring the tart back.

The Java Momma Twist

For the rim, crush a few freeze-dried strawberries into your rimming sugar before you dip the glass. It turns the rim a soft pink instead of plain white, and you get a little burst of concentrated strawberry on the first sip — no extra step, just a swap.

Strawberry Lemon Drop Iced Tea Cocktail recipe — boozy or mocktail, made with cold brew tea

What You'll Need

The Base (both versions)

  • 4 oz strong cold-brewed Strawberry Lemonade Tea (see method below)
  • 1–2 Tbsp Rose Simple Syrup or Tea Simple Syrup, your choice (recipes below)
  • Ice
  • Sugar, for the rim
  • Fresh lemon juice, for the rim

Make It Boozy

  • 1.5 oz vodka
  • ½ oz Cointreau (or your favorite orange liqueur), optional

Keep It Mocktail

  • 1.5 oz tonic water
  • ½ oz orange juice

How to Make It

  1. The night before: Cold brew the tea strong — one Strawberry Lemonade pod to 2 cups cold water, refrigerated 6 hours to overnight.
  2. Dip the rim of your serving glass in lemon juice, then roll it in sugar (or the strawberry sugar from the Twist above).
  3. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the strong-brewed tea, your syrup of choice, and either the vodka + Cointreau or the tonic + OJ.
  4. Shake vigorously for 15–20 seconds, until very cold.
  5. Strain into your prepared glass filled with fresh ice.
  6. Garnish with a lemon wheel or a fresh strawberry.

Two Syrups, Pick One

Both keep about two weeks refrigerated. Make a batch, use a spoonful here, and you'll have syrup left for lemonade, tea, or the next round.

Rose Simple Syrup

½ cup water · 4 Tbsp Rose Sugar (or ½ cup sugar + 2 Tbsp dried culinary rose petals)

Heat water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low until simmering, stirring to dissolve. Reduce heat and simmer 5 more minutes. Remove from heat, cool, strain, and store in an airtight jar in the fridge.

Tea Simple Syrup (we love All That Razz here)

½ cup water · ½ cup sugar · 1 Tbsp loose leaf tea

Combine water and tea in a saucepan over medium-low, bring to a gentle simmer for 5 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer into a jar to remove the leaves. Add the sugar, cover, and shake until fully dissolved. Cool completely and refrigerate up to two weeks.

Questions About This One

Can I make a big batch for a crowd?
Yes — everything here scales evenly. Cold brew a full pitcher (one pod per quart, standard strength this time) and multiply the syrup and spirits by the number of drinks you're pouring, then shake in batches or stir together in a pitcher with ice right before serving.

What if I can't find Strawberry Lemonade tea?
Strawberry Serendipity loose leaf is the closest stand-in — steep it double-strength for iced use, and add a little extra fresh lemon juice since that blend doesn't have lemon built in the way the pod does.

Which syrup should I use?
Rose leans floral and pairs beautifully with the hibiscus notes already in the tea. Tea syrup made with All That Razz leans deeper and fruitier, with a little tannic backbone from the black tea. Neither is wrong — it's a mood call.

Is the mocktail version actually good, or is it an afterthought?
Genuinely good on its own. The tonic adds a little bitter lift and the orange juice rounds out the citrus — it's not just "the recipe minus vodka."

If this one's your speed, our Lavender Lemonade runs the same playbook — herbal tea base, lemon, vodka or gin if you want it. Good company for a porch table.

Made this one? Strawberry Lemonade Cold Brew Tea Pods are fresh in — one pouch is four pods, and each one keeps a pitcher going in the fridge for days.

More recipes like this one are at The Menu.

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The Berry Tart Lemon Drop

Cold-brewed strawberry lemonade tea, a sugared rim, and your choice of vodka or virgin. This is the Berry Tart Lemon Drop — made your way.

Author
Sally Valenti
Prep Time
5 minutes
Servings
1
Category

Cocktails

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

  • 4 oz strong cold-brewed Strawberry Lemonade Tea
  • 1-2 Tbsp Rose Simple Syrup or Tea Simple Syrup
  • Ice
  • Sugar, for the rim
  • Fresh lemon juice, for the rim
  • 1.5 oz vodka
  • 1/2 oz Cointreau (or orange liqueur), optional

Directions

  1. 1. The night before, cold brew the tea strong: one Strawberry Lemonade pod to 2 cups cold water, refrigerated 6 hours to overnight.
  2. 2. Dip the rim of your serving glass in lemon juice, then roll in sugar.
  3. 3. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the strong-brewed tea, syrup, vodka, and Cointreau.
  4. 4. Shake vigorously 15-20 seconds until very cold.
  5. 5. Strain into your prepared glass filled with fresh ice.
  6. 6. Garnish with a lemon wheel or fresh strawberry.
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