Stir It Up with an Arnold Palmer

“Hey babe, I’ve got an idea.”The evolution of the Arnold Palmer”The King” died this week at the age of 87, leaving behind not only a golfing legacy, but also a beverage one. We couldn’t let his loss go by without remembering him here with the story of how the drink named after him came to be. Palmer was interviewed in 2013 for an ESPN “30 for 30 Short” where he talked about how his late wife Winnie made tea for lunch and one day the idea for the drink just came to him. “My wife made a lot of iced tea for lunch, and I said, ‘Hey, babe, I’ve got an idea. You make the iced tea and make a big pitcher, and we’ll just put a little lemonade in it and see how that works.’ We mixed it up, and I got the solution about where I wanted it and I put the lemonade in it. I had it for lunch after working on the golf course. I thought, ‘Boy, this is great, babe. I’m going to take it when I play golf. I’m going to take a thermos of iced tea and lemonade.'” He goes on to say that he was building a golf course in Palm Springs and he described to the waitress what he wanted in his drink. The waitress went to take the order of an adjacent table and the lady said, “I want an Arnold Palmer, I want what he’s having.” And his eponymous drink was born, quenching the thirst of duffers and non-duffers alike for years to comeRaise a glass with us as Arnie would — “the dominant factor must be iced tea with about 1/3 or 1/4 of it in lemonade” — and stir it up.