Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.
I was raised in a golf household. My dad was a high school golf coach. Not a good one, mind you, but he cared. There were plenty of weekends lost to the Travelers Championship or Greater Milwaukee Open as a kid.
As a result, I spent some time at the driving range, walked some municipal courses with some flea market knock-off clubs and was generally indifferent toward golf. Until I became an adult and realized you could spend most of your round with a drink in your hand. Golf, much like watching baseball or playing slow-pitch softball, is much better with a beverage.
This week’s sipper combines those worlds. Arnold Palmer’s pour of choice, a half lemonade, half iced tea glass of simple pleasure, has always been a fertile spot to plant booze. Add some vodka or bourbon or Southern Comfort to it and you’ve got what I’d always heard as a John Daly. But Arnie’s estate is branching out, so what we’ve got is the officially branded Arnold Palmer spiked bevvy. He’s right there on the can — signature and trademark multi-colored umbrella and all.
Does it live up to the Palmer standard? Is it at least as good as the Arizona Iced Teas that bear his name? Let’s crack this can.
Arnold Palmer Spiked Raspberry: B
The tea shines a little more strongly than the lemonade. It’s unsweet, but tempered by the sugar (adjacent) taste of its colleague.
Arnold Palmer does a great job of avoiding the bile-y, too-acidic undercurrent that makes Twisted Tea so unpleasant. This just tastes like tea and lemonade. It’s very easy to drink, which is useful since it comes in a 24 ounce king can. That’s not a judgment by the way. I love a good king can. We need more of them.
Drinking straight from the can rather than on ice does seem to hurt the overall experience. The alcohol is more apparent and that acidic tang is a lot more noticeable when it’s surrounded by aluminum. So that’s a B- from the king can and a B+ if you’ve got a glass and some ice handy.
Would I drink it instead of a Hamm's?
Welcome to a new feature on these reviews; a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I opt for Arnold Palmer Spiked over a cold can of Hamm’s?
If I’m drinking it from an ice-filled glass, yes.
If I’m drinking it from the can … nah. Give me the Hamm’s.
