It’s a beautiful thing when two entities come together and create something so perfect that for a split second you believe you realize what the meaning of life is. While for some this is a husband, wife, and the birth of their child, for me it is lemonade, iced tea, and the indescribable mixture of the two put together.  While I’m sure this drink was conceived before his time and would still be drank today without him, the one and only Arnold Palmer deserves our gratitude for taking this drink to the level that it deserves. Whether you have heard of this drink or not, I highly suggest you take a few moments to educate yourself. The simple mixture of iced tea and lemonade is all that is required for the basic Arnold Palmer but for this review specifics are in order. The Arizona Arnold Palmer Lite with 1/3 less calories Half Iced Tea & Half Lemonade is about to be judged.

Appearance -

• Arnold Palmer Container Designer Peon: “Sir, we must create a container suitable for the great drink known as The Arnold Palmer. What are we going to do?”
• Arnold Palmer Container Designer Genius: “It’s too easy peon. Its as simple as taking everything wrong with today’s drinking containers and fixing it.”
• Peon: “So a glass bottle?”
• Genius: “Glass breaks.”
• Peon: “A plastic bottle?”
• Genius: “Plastic is for pussies.”
• Peon: “But that just leaves a can. But cans don’t have caps and they can spill.”
• Genius: “If you’re spilling an Arnold Palmer then you don’t deserve to be drinking it in the first place.”
• Peon: “But the can is small!?”
• Genius: “Make it bigger.”
• Peon: “Like an energy drink?”
• Genius: “Fuck energy drinks.”
• Peon: “Genius Sir”.

This word for word dialog of how the Arnold Palmer can came to be truly captures the care and thought that went into the design of this beverage. You are most likely going to see this can while browsing the beverage section at a gas station. At first it may seem that it would be hard to miss amongst the other cannisters trying to sport a fancy logo or funky color. But the Arnold Palmer knows how to play it cool. Like Excalibur waiting to be pulled from the stone, The AP waits patiently with a black and white collage of perfect pose photos resting on its skin. Any passerby lucky enough to see this will instantly be confident that if he were to purchase this beverage, the possibility of a bad decision would be non-existent. When you do finally reach into the cooler and wrap your hands around your prize, you start to feel the perfection. This is also where you start to realize that The AP is more than a refreshing beverage. It is an accessory. It is a lifestyle. And I’m not talking about a douchebag accessory where you have to pop your collar and wear a LIVESTRONG bracelet. This is above that. This true respect. Men want to hold it, women want to hold it, and women want to be near men that are holding it.

Performance -

While just holding this can may be good enough for some, performance is where this drink really shines. The obvious question is this: How does it taste? And the answer is this: Um, fucking amazing. I really don’t know anyone that doesn’t like lemonade. It quenches your thirst, it tastes delicious, and it mixes well with vodka. But its strong points are also where it can fail.  Lemonade can quench your thirst and taste good, but if you don’t get the right mix this can be a disaster. A little to much on the tart side and the lemonade experience is ruined. Enter Iced Tea. The balance is perfect. Unfortunately in today’s food realm, the better the taste usually means a sacrifice in the health factor.  But don’t fret. The entire 20 oz can is only 150 calories. That’s only 50 calories per serving. Of course the entire can will be consumed in one sitting, but its worth knowing the rest of your day you will be completely satisfied. And this is on a normal day. If you’re looking for your instant hangover cure, you need to look no further.  You wake up after a long night of drinking. You remember having fun but now your mouth tastes like an asshole and your head is being beat to death by a sludge hammer. You make the dizzy walk to your fridge and crack open an ice cold AP. You might as well die right there because you’re not ever going to be any happier. And here is the added bonus. Lets say you wake up in that same situation and you look over to find a girl laying next to you. If she’s hot, give her an AP and she’ll stay. If she’s not, tell her you will give her an AP if she leaves. It really is a solution for every problem. (Obviously in both situations you are just using The AP to get what you want. Once you have what you want, take The AP away before they open the can. Only a fool gives an AP away for free.)

Durability/Re-Usability -

As our experiences will tell us time after time, nothing is perfect no matter how it may seem so. The AP’s shortfall is that it will in fact become empty if you drink enough of it. While I have made attempts to try and stop this, I have not yet been able to get around the physics of consumption. Once you have consumed 20 oz of the beverage, the can will in fact be just that, a can. Now this doesn’t mean you can’t go buy another, but it is quite a hassle if time is short. Rest assured though, that once the can is finished, you will still be completely satisfied. If the only thing that can make a product’s experience better is more of that product, then that’s a winner in my book. Plus if you are a can collector, Arnold Palmer product collector, awesome thing collector, container that just held lemonade at a 1:2 ratio collector, or even a collector of things that can’t be closed once you open them, this can will be an excellent addition to any of those collections.

The Bottom Line -

Go buy this drink. There’s not many times when you can have this much fun drinking something when alcohol isn’t involved. And no one is stopping you from making alcohol involved with it either.  Whether you’ve just woken up, you’re working out, or trying to set the mood for the special someone, The AP should be your go to beverage. There may be a disappointment once that can is empty, but just look at it as another opportunity to look cool at the gas station.

My Rating – 9.5/10

Extra Tidbit: This review was for the store bought Arnold Palmer, but feel free to try and make your own. You may have to play around with the ratios of lemonade to iced tea to get what you like best but since when isn’t a little experimentation not fun? And remember that pink lemonade is NOT the same as regular lemonade. This cheap knockoff of an “ade” is unnacceptable.