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Want an easy and refreshing sip on a hot day? Try an Arnold Palmer drink! This simple combination of lemonade and iced tea is seriously satisfying.
This simple mocktail takes hardly any effort to make – which is exactly what you want on a hot day. Add lemon slices and ice to a high ball glass (affiliate link), pour in some iced tea and then top it off with lemonade. Pop a straw in there if you desire, then start sipping. Done!
Why You’ll Love This Arnold Palmer Recipe
- Easy. You don’t need any specialty tools or even more than a few minutes to make this recipe.
- Simple ingredients. Nothing complicated here! All you need is iced tea, lemonade, and perhaps lemon slices for garnish.
- Refreshing. This drink checks all the boxes when it comes to cooling down on a sweltering day.
What Is An Arnold Palmer Drink?
An Arnold Palmer is a non-alcoholic drink named after the golfer, Arnold Palmer. He would often request a mix of iced tea and lemonade at golf courses, so eventually, that combination was turned into an official beverage named after him.
Palmer preferred three parts unsweetened iced tea to one part lemonade, but there are many different ratios and you should feel free to experiment with what pleases your tastebuds too. If you make this drink with equal parts lemonade and iced tea, it is called a Half & Half.
The Arizona beverage company has a commercially produced version of the Arnold Palmer that you can buy pretty much anywhere. That’s actually how we discovered this drink. The farmstand down the road sells chilled cans of Half & Half, which is incredibly refreshing after an afternoon picking berries in the summer sun.
What You’ll Need
Want to make an Arnold Palmer at home? Here’s how. You’ll only need a few simple ingredients! Be sure to scroll down to the recipe card for more details.
- Lemonade – You can use homemade lemonade, or storebought. I like Newman’s Own lemonade.
- Unsweetened Iced Tea – Homemade or storebought.
- Ice
- Lemon wedges or slices – Whichever shape you enjoy most 🙂
How to Make an Arnold Palmer
- Prep your glass. Gather all your ingredients, then fill a tall glass about 1/3 full with ice. An Arnold Palmer is usually served in a high ball glass, but use whatever kind of glass you prefer. Large mason jars (affiliate link) work well.
- Add the lemon slices.
- Pour in the ice tea and top it off with lemonade.
- Pop a straw in there and start sipping!
Want to Add Booze? Make It a John Daly
You can add alcohol to an Arnold Palmer and make it a “Spiked Arnold Palmer,” which is also known as a John Daly drink. (John Daly is another golf pro.) Usually, a John Daly is made with vodka, but you can also use Bourbon or Cointreau to make one of the popular variations.
Can I Make This For a Crowd?
Yup! This drink is super simple to make for a crowd. I recommend putting only a modest amount of ice in your pitcher because as it melts it will water down your drink. My preferred method is:
- Combine chilled iced tea and lemonade in a pitcher. Fill it 1/3 high with lemonade, then top it off with iced tea. Feel free to modify the ratios here. For example, you could make Half & Half in a pitcher by just using 1/2 lemonade and 1/2 iced tea.
- Add a handful of ice.
- Serve as needed. Pour into glasses filled 1/3 with ice and garnished with lemon slices.
For parties, I’ll usually just have an ice bucket on the table next to a bowl of lemon slices on ice. Then people can assemble their own Arnold Palmer drinks.
More Non-Alcoholic Sips
Arnold Palmer Drink
Ingredients
- ½ cup lemonade
- 1 cup unsweetened iced tea, or enough to fill the glass
- Ice for serving
- Lemon slices or wedges, for garnish
Instructions
- Fill a tall glass about 1/3 full with ice
- Add 2-3 thin lemon slices
- Add lemonade to glass
- Add iced tea to glass
- Garnish with lemon wedge and serve