Name: Carambola Iced Tea Cooler Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 cups of water; 3 black tea bags; 1/2 cup of sugar; 3 large fresh carambola (star fruit), trimmed and seeded (about 3 cups of sliced carambola); extra carambola slices and mint for garnish (optional)

Carambola Iced Tea Cooler Recipe

Carambola Iced Tea Cooler in a mason jar with star fruit garnish with a filled pitcher in the background.

Tropical Carambola Iced Tea Cooler is just the thing to sip on during the dog days of summer. This star fruit drink recipe is easy to make and is so refreshing on a hot day.

What is Carambola?

Carambola is a tropical fruit also known as star fruit. The tropical star fruit is originally from Asia but has been cultivated in Florida for over a hundred years.

A mason jar glass filled with Carambola iced tea recipe with sliced starfruit and mint garnish. The filled glass pitcher is in the background. — **Carambola Iced Tea served in a Mason jar.**

Carambola has an almost indescribable flavor. A fully ripened star fruit has the sweetest flavor and the beautiful star-shaped tropical fruits have a flavor like no other fruit I have ever tasted.

a close up photo of fresh star fruit — **Fresh Carambola fruit picked from the tree**

If you were to ask two different people what the flavor of a star fruit is you will likely get two different answers. To me, the carambola tastes like a combination of melon and pear.

A wooden cutting board with 4 pieces of sliced star fruit with a whole fruit in the background. — **sliced star fruit**

For this Carambola Iced Tea Cooler recipe, I used these beautiful large fresh carambola that were picked from a local tree.

They were so sweet that you could leave out the sugar and still enjoy this tropical iced tea recipe without a sweetener. If you only have access to the smaller tarter fresh carambola fruit variety you may need to adjust the amount of sugar used.

How To Make Carambola or Starfruit Juice

To make the Carambola Iced Tea Cooler you will need to make carambola juice.

An overhead photo of glass measuring cup with 3 cups of freshly made carambola juice — **carambola juice**

Carambola juice is very easy to make.

Prepare the star fruit to make carambola juice by trimming off each end of the carambola fruit. The ends of the fruit are usually browned and bruised by either falling to the ground or from being transported after picking.

Overhead photo of a white enamel strainer with red handles filled with freshly picked carambola fruit. — **fresh tree-ripened star fruit**

Next, you will trim off the green unripened or browned ridges from along the points of the “star”.

You will need to remove the seeds although the carambola seeds are edible. Slice each carambola fruit into star-shaped slices. I have found that this is the easiest way to remove the seeds from a star fruit.

Overhead photo of a blender filled half way with sliced carambola fruit

Place the trimmed, seeded and sliced carambola into a blender.

Overhead photo of the inside of a blender with freshly made star fruit juice. — **How to make carambola juice**

Pulse or run the blender on the whole juice setting until the carambola fruit is liquified.

overhead photo of a fine mesh strainer over a glass measuring cup with the remains of carambola solids removed from homemade carambola juice.

Strain the juice through a fine-mesh strainer to separate the solids from the liquid. 3 cups of sliced carambola will yield 1 cup of fresh carambola juice.

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How To Make Carambola Iced Tea Cooler

Bring three cups of water to a boil and drop 3 black tea bags into the boiling water. Allow the tea bags to boil for 2 minutes and remove the pot from the heat.

Allow the black tea bags to steep for 5 minutes and remove the tea bags from the water. Stir the sugar into the hot tea until it has dissolved.

Allow the black tea to cool to room temperature. You can place the hot tea in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process.

Overhead photo of a glass pitcher with a cobalt blue hand filled with ice, carambola juice and sliced star fruit — **carambola juice**

Fill a pitcher with ice cubes and pour the carambola juice over the ice cubes. Add a few slices of another carambola fruit if you desire.

a glass pitcher full of Star Fruit Iced Tea

Pour the sweetened brewed black tea into the pitcher with the carambola juice. Mix to combine. Serve with a garnish of star fruit slice and mint leaves.

A glass of Carambola Iced Tea Cooler with a serving pitcher full of this tropical drink recipe.

One of my other favorite carambola recipes is my Carambola Strawberry Jam recipe which I also made with these beautiful fresh carambola fruit I was lucky to get a bag full of this summer.

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