Family Friendly Drink Recipes for Parties

When hosting a party, it isn't necessary to provide a full bar or a full range of every soft-drink available on the market. Simple punches, iced tea and lemonade are great party drinks, especially when the guests include children and tea-totaling grandmothers.

These simple non-alcoholic party beverages will quench the thirst at any family-friendly party.

Southern-Style Sweetened Sun Tea
It may seem simple but it took me several years to finally get the hang of sweetened sun tea. You don't need sun to make sun tea, by the way. I've had success on overcast days, but it does take a little longer. It also isn't necessary to buy a special "tapper" jar for sun tea. A clean gallon-size pickle jar with a lid works great.

There is a school of thought that pooh-poohs the idea of adding sugar to cold water and getting it to dissolve sufficiently. Vigorous stirring will take care of most of the sugar and the sun will do the rest.

This is our recipe, but everyone's tastes will vary. We like our iced tea on the strong side and The Man likes it extra sweet.

In a one-gallon glass jar with a tight-fitting lid place one cup of granulated sugar. Fill the jar within 2 inches of the top with cold water. Stir with a long spoon for a couple of minutes until most of the sugar is dissolved. Add 16 regular-size tea bags (the better the quality, the better the sun tea). Place outside in an open area out of the shade. If the sun is bright, the sun tea should be ready in 2-3 hours. On a cloudy day, it might take 4-5 hours.
Remove tea bags and stir again. Serve over ice. Refrigerate any leftovers for up to two days.

The Simplest Punch Ever
This recipe is almost embarrassing. Perhaps it would be different if I took the time to make my own sherbet or sorbet, but these are supposed to be simple recipes.

Scoop one quart of sherbet, any flavor, into a punch bowl. I'm actually partial to pineapple sherbet. Add one chilled 2-liter bottle of lemon-lime soda or ginger ale to the punch bowl. Stir to begin melting the sherbet.

Now the embarrassing part: The punch is now ready to serve.

By the way, punch bowls seemed to have gone out of vogue as gifts many years ago. I borrowed Mom's for years, but I found my own cut-glass punch bowl at a flea market for $10.

Several other AC Contributors have recipes for non-alcoholic punches: Kaylee Todd, Brenda Gibson and Kumu.