Long Island iced tea

Long Island Iced Tea

IBA official cocktail
The Long Island iced tea was named for its resemblance to the non-alcoholic drink of the same name.
Type	Cocktail
Base spirit	Gin Tequila Vodka Rum
Served	On the rocks: poured over ice
Standard garnish	lemon slice
Standard drinkware	Highball glass
IBA specified ingredients†	1.5 cl (one part) Vodka 1.5 cl (one part) Tequila 1.5 cl (one part) White Rum 1.5 cl (one part) Triple Sec 1.5 cl (one part) Gin 2.5 cl (1½ part) Lemon juice 3.0 cl (two parts) Gomme Syrup Dash of Cola
Preparation	Mix ingredients in glass over ice, stir, garnish and serve.

A Long Island Iced Tea is a cocktail made with, among other ingredients, vodka, gin, tequila, and rum. A popular variation mixes equal parts vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and triple sec with 1 1/2 parts sour mix with a splash of cola. Close variants often replace the sour mix with sweet and sour mix or with lemon juice, and the cola with actual iced tea. Some chain restaurants even take the liberty of substituting brandy for the tequila.

Some claim that the drink, like most cocktails, was invented during the Prohibition era, as a way of taking the appearance of a non-alcoholic drink (iced tea). A lemon slice is often added to enhance this resemblance. To some, the drink also shares a similar taste to tea. This has led to its frequent use in fiction as a method to get a teetotaler drunk.

However, evidence suggested that Long Island Iced Tea was first served in the late 1970s by Robert (Rosebud) Butt, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn, in the Town of Babylon, Long Island, New York.

The drink has a much higher alcohol concentration (~28%) than most cocktails because of the proportionally small amount of mixer. This cocktail is often altered in other countries, due to the unpopularity of sour mix. Long Island Iced Tea served outside the States is often made of liquors and cola alone (without sour mix), or with lemon or lime juice, or with lime cordial.

Competing Claims

Recently, author JS Moore disclosed some physical and anecdotal evidence about the true origin of Long Island Ice Tea in a short story called The Very Still from his nonfiction collection of stories about bootlegging in Northeast Tennessee titled Understanding Apples(Outskirts Press, October 2006). Word of Long Island Ice Tea, an original cocktail that looked innocent (an important attribute during Prohibition) may have traveled fast, but during Prohibition no one is going to brag about inventing it. In an era of secrecy, smuggling, gangsters, shootouts and undercover "dry agents" the illegal consumption of alcohol was kept very low key. Maybe that's why the Tennessee story hasn't surfaced until recently.

Tennessee led the Temperance movement by prohibiting alcohol in 1909, ten years before alcohol was banned with The Noble Experiment ten years later. And Tennessee remained a dry state after [Prohibition] was dissolved in 1933. Tennessee was dry until the 1970s. In the Long Island community of Kingsport, Tennessee older residents remember being served the drink at various locales well before the 1970's and the Oak Beach Inn claims to the invention.

Although it was common during The Noble Experiment to disguise cocktails as non-alcoholic drinks, Mr. Moore's claim is the only one that firmly places the invention of Long Island Ice Tea during the Prohibition Era. The difference in ingredients seems somewhat minor at a glance, but considering the concoction contained Ransom Bishop's own brown liquor and own homemade rum - the alcohol level packed a little more zip than its present day counterparts.

Another confirmation comes with comparing the actual drinks for their overall taste. Ransom Bishop's original blend actually tastes like Sweet Tea, probably because of the use of Maple Syrup and actual lemon and lime halves. But the Oak Beach Inn Recipe tastes like a potent cocktail. Though both recipes could easily get a Teetotaler drunk, they would be more likely fooled by Ransom Bishop's recipe.

Long Island Ice Tea Recipe à la Ransom Bishop

One fresh Lemon half
One fresh Lime half
Squeeze both into a pint glass or fruit jar
Add:
½ oz. Rum
1 oz. Vodka
1 oz. Whiskey
½ oz. Gin
½ oz. Tequila
½ oz. Maple Syrup

Mix Thoroughly Then pour in 4 to 5 oz. Soda Water (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, or RC Cola) without stirring.

Variations

The increasing popularity of the Long Island has spawned its own family of cocktails. The following drinks remain popular in their own right in numerous locales throughout the United States, while owing their existence to the success of the original Long Island:

Long Beach Iced Tea: Simply a Long Island with cranberry juice instead of Coca-Cola. Named after the city of Long Beach Island, New Jersey, home to cranberry bogs [1].

Adios Motherfucker: Also known as a "Code Blue", "Electric Iced Tea" and "Alaska Iced Tea" due to its azure hue; known as "James Tea Kirk" at Quark’s Bar & Restaurant within the Star Trek: The Experience attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton. This concoction is topped with Sprite instead of Coca-Cola and utilizes blue curacao instead of triple sec.

Tokyo Tea: A favorite of the West Coast of the United States, this libation uses the same liquors as the original Long Island, but is crowned with one-half to one full ounce of Midori instead of Coca-Cola. Also referred to as a "Three Mile Island."

California Iced Tea: Calls for Amaretto in place of tequila and triple sec and topped with equal parts cranberry and pineapple juices.

Hawaiian Iced Tea: Shuns tequila and triple sec in favor of a full ounce of Chambord, and is topped with Sprite instead of Coca-Cola.

Miami Iced Tea: Reflecting the tropical setting of its name, this fruitier tea shuns triple sec and tequila in favor of Midori and peach schnapps, and is topped with orange juice instead of Coca-Cola.

Long Island Iced Tea

Caribbean Iced Tea: True to its name, this recipe utilizes a full ounce of dark jamaican rum, usually Myer's, in place of tequila and vodka.

Texas Iced Tea: The only difference between this and a Long Island is the substitution of brandy for gin.

Georgia Iced Tea: This drink calls for sweet tea in place of Coca-Cola.

Munich Iced Tea: In order to keep its drinkers awake and on edge, this variation uses sparks (drink) and red bull (in equal proportion), as well as vodka with a splash of Sprite (soft drink).

Popular culture

Marge Simpson, in The Simpsons episode The Great Money Caper, once quipped: "I'd like to visit that Long Island place, if only it were real," after having several servings of Long Island Iced Tea. Also, in The Simpsons Hit and Run, if the player runs around for too long while playing as Marge, she exclaims "I need a Long Island Iced Tea!"

In the movie Cruel Intentions, the innocent girl Cecile Caldwell is drinking what she thinks is regular iced tea, and says: "This doesn't taste like iced tea". The quick reply she gets is: "It's from Long Island".

In the Broadway musical Avenue Q, the two cute but dangerous Bad Idea Bears give a Long Island Iced Tea to another character to get them drunk enough for sex.

In Night Court, Markie Post's character gets drunk after drinking a few too many Long Islands. She assumed it was just iced tea.

In Sex and the City, episode Where There's Smoke..., Charlotte gets drunk on a variation called Staten Island Iced Tea.

In Gilmore Girls, Lorelai warns her daughter, Rory, against this cocktail. "Honey, someday, when you're a little older, you will be introduced to something that is extremely seductive but fickle," she says in the episode "Red Light on the Wedding Night." "A fair-weather friend who seems benign but packs a wallop like a donkey kick, and that is the Long Island Iced Tea. The Long Island Iced Tea makes you do things that you normally wouldn't do, like lifting your skirt in public or calling someone you normally wouldn't call at really weird times."

In the That '70s Show episode, "First Date", Donna gets drunk on Long Island iced teas, thinking that they're regular iced teas.

See also

• List of cocktails

External links

• LongIslandIceTea recipe at DrinkBoy
• www.understandingapples.com
• CocktailTeam.net