Healthy Homemade Kool Aid

During the heat of summer I try to get my children to drink water or liquids as much as possible to ward off dehydration.  The problem is that they want flavor in their drinks and as I don't buy pop and juice is so expensive!  I have used Kool-Aid but always feel very concerned about what exactly is used to make it?  Plus Kool-Aid needs allot of sugar to make it palatable.  So I have found a way to make my own homemade Kool-Aid from herbal teas!  You can find many of these herbal teas at the grocery store, but ours didn't have a good selection so I ended up ordering from amazon which I find has the best prices and the best selection.  I chose teas that I thought would be good cold.

I ordered

Country Peach Passion

Wild Berry Zinger

Cranberry Apple Zinger

Black Cherry Berry

For a half gallon of drink I used six tea bags and poured half a jug full of boiling water over it.  Then I let it steep for 15 minutes.  These are caffeine free and made from herbs and fruit.

After steeping I filled the rest of the way with cold water and added about 3 tablespoon of sweetener, I used honey.  Compare that with a full cup of sugar for standard koolaid!

Then I just pop the jug into the fridge until cold and serve over ice.  So far the favorite for our family is the Country Passion Peach which is amazing!  If you like peaches you will love this one.  It has an intense peachy flavor.

Recipe

6 standard bags Celestial Seasoning Fruit Tea of your choice

4 Cups Boiling Water

Sweetener To Taste (honey, sugar, stevia)

Additional fruits such as lemon/lime slices, crushed berries

4 cups cold water

Instructions:  Pour boiling water over teabags in a large pitcher, let steep 15 min. at least.  Remove tea bags and add fruits, sweeteners, and cold water.  Chill in refrigerator and serve over ice.  Keep refrigerated.