High Fructose Corn Syrup Free Herbal Arnold Palmer with Fresh Herbs

Total time45 min

Prep time10 min

Cook time5 min

High Fructose Corn Syrup Free Herbal Arnold Palmer with Fresh Herbs

The classic Arnold Palmer gets a garden-fresh upgrade here, blending black tea steeped with mint, basil, and optional lavender alongside bright, freshly squeezed lemonade. Most bottled versions of this drink are loaded with high fructose corn syrup hiding in the tea blend, the lemonade mix, or both — this recipe sidesteps all of that with a quick homemade simple syrup made from nothing but granulated sugar and water. Every drop of sweetness is completely transparent, which is exactly the point. The herbal steep adds a floral, aromatic depth that no store-bought can comes close to matching, and the fresh lemon juice keeps the lemonade side tart and clean. It comes together in stages but each step is genuinely simple — boil, steep, strain, stir, pour. Served over ice with a sprig of mint and a lemon slice, it looks like something from a nice restaurant patio and tastes even better than it looks.

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Ingredients

4 servings

For the herbal tea

4 cups water, divided
3 black tea bags
Lipton Black Tea, 8 oz Twinings of London Black Tea English Breakfast - 20 Count Twinings of London Black Tea English Breakfast Decaffeinated - 20 Count PG Tips Black Tea - 40 Count Stash Black Tea English Breakfast - 20 Count
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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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