Long Island Iced Tea

Long Island Iced Tea

IBA Official Cocktail
The Long Island iced tea was named for its resemblance to non-alcoholic Iced tea.
Type	Mixed drink
Primary alcohol by volume	Gin Tequila Vodka Rum
Served	On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish	lemon slice
Standard drinkware	Highball glass
IBA specified ingredients*	15 ml (three parts) Vodka 15 ml (three parts) Tequila 15 ml (three parts) White rum 15 ml (three parts) Triple sec 15 ml (three parts) Gin 25 ml (five parts) Lemon juice 30 ml (six parts) Gomme Syrup Splash of Coke
Preparation	Mix ingredients in glass over ice, stir, garnish and serve.
* Long Island Iced Tea recipe at International Bartenders Association

A Long Island Iced Tea is a highball made with, among other ingredients, vodka, gin, tequila, and rum. A popular version mixes equal parts vodka, gin, tequila, rum, and triple sec with 1½ parts sour mix and a splash of cola. Most variants use equal parts of the main liquors but include a smaller amount of triple sec (or other orange-flavored liqueur). Close variants often replace the sour mix with lemon juice, replace the cola with actual iced tea, or add white crème de menthe; however, most variants do not include any tea, despite the name of the drink. Some restaurants substitute brandy for the tequila.

The drink has a much higher alcohol concentration (about 22 percent) than most highballs due to the several liquors and the relatively small amount of mixer. Long islands can be ordered "extra long", which further increases the alcohol to mixer ratio.

Outside the United States, this highball is often altered, due to the unpopularity of sour mix^{[citation needed]}. Long Island Iced Tea served outside the US is often made of liquors and cola alone (without sour mix), with lemon or lime juice, orange juice or with lime cordial.

History

It is purported that Long Island Iced Tea was first served in the mid 1970s by Robert (Rosebud) Butts, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn, in the Town of Babylon, New York. Others claim that Pat Grimaldi, a regular at a small bar on Jericho Turnpike created the drink by dictating the recipe to the bartender. This is said to have been done in October of 1973.

Variants

• Alaskan Iced Tea: cola is substituted with blue Curaçao
• Beverly Hills Iced Tea cola is substituted with Champagne
• Black Opal - Seattle, WA/Portland, OR: cola is substituted with lime soda, add Chambord.
• Blue Motherfucker or Electric Iced Tea: triple sec is substituted with blue Curaçao and cola with Sprite
• California Iced Tea: cola is substituted with orange juice
• Flint, Michigan Iced Tea: Cola is substituted with Vernor's Ginger Ale.
• Grateful Dead Cola is substituted with Chambord raspberry liquor or Razzmatazz
• Harvard Iced Tea cola is substituted with Champagne, tequila is substituted with Gin
• Langøyene iste tequila is substituted with Norwegian akvavit
• Lesbos Iced Tea: cola is substituted with ouzo and Canadian whiskey.
• Long Beach Iced Tea: cola is substituted with cranberry juice
• Long Island Iced Tea: Reno Style: drink is made in cooler and chilled with snow from a Snowmageddon, specifically the February 5–6, 2010 North American blizzard.
• Jersey Tea: cola is substituted with a shot of Jägermeister
• Peach Long Island: tequila is substituted with peach schnapps
• Pittsburgh Tea: tequila is substituted with Wild Turkey
• Tennessee Iced Tea tequila is substituted with Jack Daniel's
• Texas Tea: gin is substituted with tequila.
• Tokyo Iced Tea: triple sec is substituted with Midori and cola with lemon-lime soda