Palm Springs Punch Recipe

This post originally appeared on my Paper Swallow Events blog. I've been divvying up my personal and business blogging, so I'm transferring the personal posts over to this site.

This book was provided to me by Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are 100% my own, as always.

I don't know about you all, but as the weather starts to get warmer I love finding flavorful drinks that can also help me stay cool. I've never been a coffee drinker (much to the shock of my coffee-adoring family), but I do love tea. When I had the opportunity to review Punch Bowls and Pitcher Drinks by Jeanne Kelley + Sarah Tenaglia, I was very excited! I jumped on the opportunity hoping to find many new big-batch summer drinks to enjoy.

This book was full of both pretty photographs and an abundance of recipes for every type of occasion. In all honesty, I wasn't expecting quite so many of them to include alcohol. (I don't know about you, but I don't tend to sit around sipping away at alcoholic beverages all summer long. haha. They have their place, but not in my afternoon, I want a cool drink time.) There are plenty of smoothie options, and several of the drinks (like this one) sound as if they would be delicious even if you left out the alcohol. 

To fully test this book, I did make the Palm Springs Punch. I really enjoyed it without the addition of the vodka (which makes this more like a less-sweet sweet tea, but we'll ignore that technicality.) I'm looking forward to sipping this drink on-and-off over the summer, as well as trying out the other recipes in the book!

Palm Springs Punch Recipe 
Ingredients: 
5 Earl Grey tea bags (or some other strongly flavored tea) 
1 1/2 c. Sugar 
2 1/4 c. Fresh Lemon Juice 
2 lemons, sliced into rounds 
2 1/4 c. Vodka (Or, if you want a nice, deep tea to enjoy over the weekend, I recommend this punch without the vodka. I actually think I prefer it that way.)

Directions:
1. Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add the tea bags. If you heated the water in a saucepan, remove it from the heat. Let the tea completely cool before removing the tea bags. 
2. Mix in the sugar; stir until it's dissolved.
3. Mix in the lemon juice (and vodka, if using.)
4. Pour into a large pitcher or other serving container.
5. Add the lemon slices.
6. Refrigerate until cold.
7. Remove from fridge, add ice, and serve. Use lemon slices as garnish, if desired.
8. Enjoy!

What is one of your favorite cool drink recipes for the spring and summer months?

xoxo,
​Stacia