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
Base spirit	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. 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.

Variants

Josh Boschert is NOT allowed to drink these.

• 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.
• Adios Motherfucker or Electric Iced Tea or Bondi Iceberg or Blue Motorcycle: triple sec is substituted with blue Curaçao and cola with Sprite and garnished with an orange slice
• California Iced Tea: cola is substituted with orange juice
• Clean Tea: Sweet and Sour and Cola is substituted with lemon-lime soda
• 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
• Langtry Tea Many locals in the community of Langtry, TX often substitute the sour mix and splash of cola with original flavor NyQuil. This variation is also found in neighboring communities of Comstock and Pandale.
• Lesbos Iced Tea: cola is substituted with ouzo and Canadian whiskey.
• Long Beach Iced Tea: cola is substituted with cranberry juice
• Jersey Tea: cola is substituted with a shot of Jägermeister. In California, this drink is commonly called a Darth Vader.
• 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 or Three Mile Island: triple sec is substituted with Midori and cola with lemon-lime soda

Origin

There is some dispute as to the origin of the Long Island Iced Tea. However, numerous sources attribute the origin to one or both of two inventors in the 1970s or 1920s.

Robert "Rosebud" Butt claims to have invented the drink as an entry in a contest to create a new mixed drink including Triple Sec, in 1972 while he worked at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, NY. Various local New York references echo Butt's claims. Local rumors also ascribe the origin to either Butt or another bartender at the Old Beach Inn, Chris Bendicksen.

Alternately, a slightly different drink is claimed to have been invented in the 1920s during Prohibition, by an "Old Man Bishop" in a local community named Long Island in Kingsport, Tennessee.. The drink was then perfected by Ransom Bishop, "Old Man Bishop"'s son. This drink included whiskey and maple syrup, and varied quantities of the 5 liquors, rather than the modern one with cola and 4 equal portions of the 4 liquors.

American restaurant chain TGI Friday's has claimed that it was involved with inventing the drink.