Copycat Purple Drink

So Brooke loves to order the new "purple drink" - why isn't there a catchier name haha? - at Starbucks so I thought I'd surprise her and see if I could figure out how to make something similar when she visited me the other day.  I found the ingredients they use online but no amounts or directions are given, so as always I just winged it - Brooke tasted my very first attempt and after sipping, thinking, sipping, thinking, I asked if it tastes like theirs and she said nope, it's better. Yay! We did tinker with it a little bit to try to get it exactly like theirs but I kept thinking "why are we working to make it taste not as good?" LOL. We got close to the original by adding more tea and sweetener, but I liked my first batch and am sharing that recipe with you :)

ingredients:
.Tazo passion tea - I steeped 4 teabags in 2 quarts of hot water for a couple hours on the counter. Remove teabags and refrigerate until ready to use.
.vanilla soy milk
.blackberries
.vanilla coffee syrup - I couldn't find this at our grocery store so made it at home, see below for recipe.


directions:
In a shaker jar with tight lid I mixed equal parts tea (1/2 cup) and vanilla soy milk (1/2 cup). Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the vanilla syrup and 4 blackberries. Shake to blend, the berries will break up a little. Serve over ice.

I found a recipe for vanilla coffee syrup here. I only made half of the recipe: boil 7 ounces of water with 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar, and half of a vanilla bean if you have one (if you don't that's ok, just add another teaspoon of vanilla extract after boiling). Boil for about 5 minutes, remove from heat and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (2 if you didn't use vanilla bean). Let it cool before using in the drink recipe, refrigerate the rest. Note I have been using this in my coffee all week even though I finally broke my creamer/splenda habit and have been drinking my coffee black for a couple months now - but it's really good and I can't resist using the syrup!

here she is sipping and thinking, sipping and thinking...such a cutie.