How to Make the Best Iced Tea Arnold Palmer Drink

Refreshing cold lemonade and iced tea with lemon - that's an Arnold Palmer drink. You can easily make the best-tasting half and half at home.

What is An Arnold Palmer Drink?

The origins of this classic iced tea beverage come from the legendary golfer Arnold Palmer. The Arnold Palmer drink is a non-alcoholic beverage that combines iced tea and lemonade. Arnold Palmer was known to request this drink often, hence the drink name.

This is the quintessential summer drink. Everyone loves it! Make a large pitcher and add your favorite liquor, and now you have a-rockin' summer cocktail.

Arnold Palmer Half and Half Drink

This drink is available every day at my house all summer long. I keep it in two separate pitchers and let everyone blend to their own tastes.

Typically you will add half fresh brewed iced tea and half fresh-squeezed lemonade. You can vary the ratio to your liking. I prefer to use ¾ iced tea to ¼ lemonade.

• Texture: The lemonade adds a subtly sweet lemon flavor unique for an iced tea.
• Taste: If you're ever craving FLAVOR in your iced tea, start here. I'm using fresh lemons, not artificial lemon flavoring for a robust taste.
• Ease: Lemonade and iced tea are relatively simple. Once you're comfortable with the recipes you can make them in no time. Literally in 10 - 15 minutes tops. This recipe requires an extra step because it's in two parts, but it's pretty simple.
• Time: The iced tea lemonade comes together quickly in a few minutes.

How to Make Lemonade

It's effortless to make delicious homemade lemonade. You will need approximately 6 -7 medium-sized lemons to produce one cup of lemon juice.

Homemade lemon juice is the best way to go, but you can use bottled lemon juice for an easy shortcut. Volcano Bursts Organic Italian Lemon Juice contains only lemon juice and no other additives.

Pro Tips:

• One cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
• One cup simple syrup
• 3 cups filtered water
• Combine - yields five cups.

I prefer to use fresh lemons and juice them with a handheld juicer. Oxo makes a nice one with a large reservoir and easy pour spout.

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Simple Syrup

Simple syrup is just that - simple. It only has two ingredients, sugar, and water, in equal parts. So pour one cup of water and one cup of filtered water into a saucepan to make a simple syrup.

I use pure cane granulated sugar for simple syrup. It dissolves quickly, and it's natural sugar, albeit refined but at least it's not genetically modified.

Pro Tips:

• Heat one part water and one part sugar until the sugar dissolves.
• Set aside and let the syrup cool.
• The beauty of this simple syrup recipe is that you can add just about any flavoring herb, spice, or even citrus rinds to use in summer sweet beverages and cocktails.

Add lemon juice, simple syrup, and water to a pitcher and stir. You've just made homemade lemonade.

Half Tea Half Lemonade

Freshly brewed black tea pairs well with any sweet fruit, so it's no surprise it tastes delicious when combined with lemonade. But, of course, you could get a little creative and use any fruit or citrus juice.

Sometimes this tea and lemonade drink is simply called 'half and half'. Not to be confused with the dairy creamer.

This recipe is similar to Arizona's Arnold Palmer drink, but it's so much better when you make it at home with fresh lemons and freshly brewed tea. No artificial lemon syrup here!

How to Brew Homemade Iced Tea

Pro Tips:

• Bring 4 cups of filtered water to a boil in a saucepan and turn it off.
• Add 10 grams of loose-leaf black tea.
• Iced tea requires a higher amount of tea leaf for a stronger tea.
• For the black tea, I recommend high-grown Ceylon or Nilgiri tea. These teas lend themselves very nicely to the addition of fruit flavors.
• Higher elevation teas do not cloud like tea grown at a lower elevation.
• Let steep for five minutes.
• Add one tablespoon lemon juice.
• Add ¼ cup sugar.
• Stir until well blended.

NOTE: One of my favorite black teas to brew for iced tea is Elmwood Inn Fine Teas - Iced Tea Nilgiri Blend. Bruce and Shelley Richardson are well known in the tea world, having authored over 14 books in addition to blending and selling fine teas. You can purchase on Amazon.

Arnold Palmer Drink Arizona

For a quick shortcut, you might be tempted to buy a prepackaged Arizona Arnold Palmer drink. But, once you've had the homemade version made from real brewed tea and fresh-squeezed lemonade, you won't ever want to go back. It might work in a pinch on the go, but it's not the real thing.

Arnold Palmer Drink Recipe

Lemon Benefits

Any time you consume real food, you'll naturally get the nutritional benefits. Take the time now to brew your own drinks. You are worth it!

The more food or beverages are processed, the more nutrients are lost. Homemade from scratch will always provide the most nutritional value over and above prepackaged processed foods.

Lemon Juice: Lemons are rich in vitamin C and have a cleansing effect on the digestive system. They have a wide range of therapeutic properties. Lemons are also rich in Vitamin B and potassium. Lemons have antibacterial and antiviral properties, strengthening the immune system. *

Black Tea: Tea from the Camellia sinensis plant contains caffeine, a stimulant, and theanine, a relaxant.  It also provides folic acid (vitamin B9), potassium and magnesium, and a trace of fluoride. Tea contains antioxidants called polyphenols that have beneficial effects on the circulatory and immune systems. *

* Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Healing Herbs by C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD