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American

Arnold Palmer

Fresh-brewed black tea and lemon juice are sweetened, then cut with cold water and ice. The mix is half tea and half lemonade, poured over a full glass of ice.

Prep
5 min
Cook
10 min
Total
15 min
Servings
6
Difficulty
Easy
Jump to recipe
Tall glass of iced tea and lemonade with a lemon wheel and plenty of ice

Why you’ll love it

  • Brewing the tea strong keeps it from tasting watery after the ice melts.
  • Sugar dissolves in the hot tea, so the cold glass is not gritty.
  • Lemon juice, not bottled lemonade mix, keeps the citrus sharp.
  • Cold water added after steeping cools the tea faster than waiting on the counter.

Ingredients

Servings6

Ingredient amounts scale. Oven temperature and cook time do not. Salt, spices, and leaveners are a starting point after you scale. Taste and adjust.

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Instructions

  1. 1

    Bring the 4 cups of water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat.

  2. 2

    Take the pan off the heat. Add the black tea bags, cover, and steep 5 minutes.

  3. 3

    Discard the tea bags. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves while the tea is still hot.

  4. 4

    Stir in the lemon juice and the 2 cups of cold water.

  5. 5

    Refrigerate the mix until cold, at least 30 minutes, or set the pitcher in a bowl of ice water if you are serving soon.

  6. 6

    Fill glasses with the ice. Pour the tea-lemonade over the ice.

  7. 7

    Garnish each glass with a lemon wheel and serve cold.

Pro tips

  • Steep the tea 5 minutes, not 15. A long steep makes the black tea bitter under the lemon.
  • If the lemonade tastes sharp, add cold water a splash at a time instead of more sugar.
  • Make the tea in the morning and keep the pitcher chilled so the ice does not do all the cooling.

Easy substitutions

Sugar
Honey, dissolved in the hot tea
Black tea bags
4 bags of decaf black tea
Fresh lemon juice
Bottled 100 percent lemon juice

Storage and reheating

Storage

Refrigerate the mix, without ice, in a covered pitcher up to 3 days.

Reheating

Do not reheat. Pour cold over fresh ice.

Nutrition

Estimates per serving, using standard ingredient averages and rounded to the nearest gram. This is not a lab analysis, and it shifts if you change brands or add sides.

Calories
128
Protein
0 g
Carbs
32 g
Fat
0 g
Fiber
0 g

Budget friendly · Stovetop

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Ingredients