Arnold Palmer is a golfer, widely considered to be one of the best golfers in history, in fact. Arnold Palmer is also a drink and, as this is a food blog and not a sports one, it’s also the one that I’m talking about today.
The drink is a mixture of half iced tea and half lemonade and for many – including Arnold Palmer and me (usually) – it’s greater than the sum of its parts. It has the refreshing, bright citrus flavor of lemons and the mellowness of iced tea. I find Arnold Palmers to be less sweet and more refreshing than lemonade alone, since many lemonades are overly sugary and don’t really cool you down. They’re certainly more interesting than iced tea alone, especially if you tend to drink plain black tea.
I used homemade lemonade and homemade iced tea for this batch, and sweetened it with simple syrup. If I had sweetened both my lemonade and my iced tea in advance, I probably wouldn’t have needed extra sweetener, but I usually keep my iced tea unsweetened. Simple syrup is always my preferred sweetener for cold drinks. It’s basically sugar dissolved in water and reduced until slightly syrupy. You’ll never end up with grains of sugar floating around your drink if you use it. Use a strong iced tea so that the flavors come through. If your iced tea is only of average strength, don’t add ice to the drink to chill it because it will water down the flavors too much.
Arnold Palmer
4 cups homemade lemonade
3 cups strong black iced tea, unsweetened (3-4 tea bags, well-steeped)
1/2-3/4 cup sugar syrup, or to taste
ice
Combine all ingredients in a large pitcher and stir to combine. Add ice and refrigerate until cold. Serve in chilled glasses with additional ice and a wedge of lemon.
Serves 6-8.
diningoncents
June 22, 2008I love iced tea lemonade! I just had some from Starbucks when I was out earlier today, it’s a great refreshing summer drink. 🙂
Delicious Chroncles
June 23, 2008this thing, is so popular today. I had no idea of it on my first day as a server. Half the people oredered it. Confusing. Delicious!!