Cocktail recipe
Long Island Iced Tea
Five spirits, sharp lemon and a cola blush: the infamous highball, made with discipline.
Ingredients
- 15 ml (½ oz) vodka
- 15 ml (½ oz) London dry gin
- 15 ml (½ oz) white rum
- 15 ml (½ oz) blanco tequila
- 15 ml (½ oz) triple sec
- 25 ml (⅚ oz) fresh lemon juice
- 15 ml (½ oz) simple syrup (1:1)
- 45 ml (1½ oz) chilled cola
- Garnish: 1 lemon wheel
Preparation
Add the spirits, citrus and ice to a highball glass. Stir gently and top with cola. Garnish with a lemon slice, if desired.
Glassware
Tall Collins glass, cubed ice
History
Robert 'Rosebud' Butt claimed to have created the modern Long Island Iced Tea at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York, in 1972, reportedly for a triple-sec competition. A competing story locates a different, whiskey-containing predecessor with 'Old Man Bishop' on Long Island in Tennessee during Prohibition. The Tennessee tale is retrospectively reported and its formula differs materially from the now-standard vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, citrus and cola combination. Butt's attribution is prominent but should be labelled a claim rather than conclusively established invention. The cocktail became a mass-market symbol of the late-20th-century American bar.
Mixology View
The joke is that the drink contains no tea; the skill is keeping its multiple spirits integrated. This is a strong cocktail despite its easy-drinking presentation—never disguise that fact.