Coconut Free Herbal Arnold Palmer with Fresh Herbs
This garden-fresh twist on a classic half-and-half drink is the kind of thing you'll want to sip on a warm afternoon with absolutely no effort to improve it. Fresh mint and basil steeped right alongside the black tea bags give the base a bright, aromatic depth that no bottled iced tea can touch, and the optional lavender nudges it into something genuinely special. The homemade simple syrup and freshly squeezed lemon juice keep the lemonade side clean and tangy — no shortcuts, no mystery additives. For anyone navigating coconut-free drinking, this is a refreshing category win, since so many flavored drinks and store-bought lemonades sneak in coconut water or coconut-derived sweeteners that can be hard to spot on labels. Every single ingredient here is straightforward and easy to verify, so you can pour with confidence. Serve it over a tall glass of ice with a sprig of mint and a lemon wheel, and it looks like something from a restaurant patio without any of the fuss.
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Learn more →Ingredients
4 servings
For the herbal tea
- 4 cups water, divided
- 3 black tea bags
- ½ cup fresh mint leaves, lightly packed
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, lightly packed
- 1 tbsp dried culinary lavender (optional)
For the simple syrup
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup water
For the lemonade
- ¾ cup fresh lemon juice (from about 4–5 lemons)
- 1 ½ cups cold water
For serving
- ice, for serving
- fresh mint sprigs, for serving (optional)
- lemon slices, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- 1
Bring 2 cups of the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from the heat, add the tea bags, mint leaves, basil leaves, and dried lavender (if using), and steep for 5 minutes.
- 2
Remove and discard the tea bags. Strain the tea through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher, pressing the herbs gently to extract their liquid, then discard the solids. Stir in the remaining 2 cups of cold water and let the tea cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes.
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