Lifestyle
Arnold Palmer is my new favorite.
Summertime beverage, that is. I’m sure if I loved golf, Arnold Palmer, the golfer, would be one of my favorite golfers.
But let us focus for a second on Arnold Palmer the beverage. It’s simple: half iced tea and half lemonade. And yes, it’s a drink invented by Arnold Palmer the golfer, back in the 1960s.
According to the Food Fight blog on L.A. Weekly’s website, in the 1960s, Arnold Palmer was in Palm Springs designing a golf course, and when he became thirsty, asked the clubhouse bartender to make the drink he made for himself at home — a mix of iced tea and lemonade. Someone overheard, asked for the same drink, and thus was born the Arnold Palmer.
Now, I could go on and on about how brilliantly delicious this drink is. The iced tea takes the lemonade’s tartness down a notch. And the lemonade serves as a yummy substitute for squeezing lemon in one’s iced tea. A perfectly refreshing mix of ...
Ah, but I go on and on about the drink itself.
What I’d rather consider is the drink’s popularity. As in just how did it suddenly (or so it seems to me) become the most popular beverage of the summer?
Consider this — the drink has been around for more than 40 years.
I just heard about it this summer.
So, OK, I can be pretty slow to catch on to trends, but I'm not that slow. What's more, I've overheard teenagers ordering Arnold Palmers. In a coffee shop recently, a woman ordered an Arnold Palmer slushy. The barista didn't bat an eye. She just poured half lemonade, half iced tea over ice in a blender, pressed "blend," and voila: an Arnold Palmer slushy. (I decided to try one, too. It was great.) At the grocery, I was purchasing pre-made tea (to go with my pre-made lemonade), and noticed on the shelf the option of buying Arizona-brand Arnold Palmer Tea. (I just stuck to my original purchase, preferring to mix my own Arnold Palmer. Ratio control is so important in iced beverages.)
I’m fascinated by the very notion of the sudden popularity of this drink, which begets many questions, including how did it suddenly become so popular? Was there some kind of ad campaign that I missed? Or did it just become popular by word of mouth, taking 40-plus years to suddenly reach so many people that it seems like everyone knows about it?
I prefer to think Arnold Palmer the drink is an “overnight” success because of the latter — word of mouth. There is something that is very satisfying about that thought.
Yes, very satisfying, just like the drink itself. Hmmm. All this contemplating has made me a bit weary. I think I’ll refresh with a tasty Arnold Palmer.
Sharon Short’s column runs Monday in Life. Send email to sharonshort@sharonshort.com.
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