Classic Arnold Palmer
Serves: 1
Hands On Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour and 0 minutes
Ingredients
Lemonade
1 cup sugar
1 3/4 cups water
4 large, juicy lemons
Black Tea
1 family-sized black iced tea bag, such as Luzianne
4 cups water
Arnold Palmer
Ice cubes
1 cup Black Tea (above)
3/4 cup Lemonade (above)
Lemon Simple Syrup, to taste (from Lemonade, above)
Lemon round, for garnish
Instructions
To make the lemonade: In a small saucepan, combine the sugar with 1 cup of the water. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the peel from one of the lemons. Add the peel to the sugar mixture. Place the saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. As soon as the mixture comes to a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Once cool, remove the lemon peels.
Meanwhile, halve the peeled lemon and the remaining three lemons. Squeeze the juice out into a medium pitcher; you should have about 1 cup of juice. Stir in the remaining 3/4 cup water. Once the syrup is cool, stir 3 tablespoons of the syrup into the lemonade. Add more, to taste, if desired. Reserve the remaining syrup for the Arnold Palmers.
To make the black tea: Place the tea bag in a medium teapot or heatproof pitcher. Bring 2 cups of the water to a boil; pour the boiling water over the tea. Let steep for 5 minutes, then remove the tea bag. Stir in the remaining 2 cups water and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
To make an Arnold Palmer: Fill a Collins or other tall glass with ice. Add the tea and lemonade and stir to combine. Taste, and add additional simple syrup, if desired. Garnish with the lemon round and drink immediately.
About the recipe
A staple of Southern patios and backyards throughout the South, the Arnold Palmer is named for the legendary golfer. While it is traditionally made with equal parts lemonade and iced tea, we like ours with a little more tea than lemonade. We’ve also upped the lemon flavor by making a lemon simple syrup, which is used to sweeten both the lemonade and the final drink itself. Feel free to make larger batches of the tea and lemonade and serve the drinks at a party; have your guests build their Arnold Palmers just as they’d like.