It looks exactly like a glass of iced tea, amber and innocent with a lemon wheel on the rim. One sip reveals the trick: five spirits, balanced by fresh lemon and sugar and softened by cola, make one of the strongest tall drinks on any menu.
3.3Editors’ rating
Taste3.5
Balance3.1
Easy to make3.7
Popularity90
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Garnish: Lemon wheel or lemon spiral · Ice: Ice cubes
Method
Fill a Collins or highball glass with ice cubes.
Add vodka, tequila, rum, gin, Cointreau, lemon juice and sugar syrup.
Stir gently to combine.
Top with a little cola, just enough to give the tea color.
Garnish with a lemon wheel or spiral and serve with a straw.
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Watch it made
Long Island Iced Tea
Taste
Sweet and sour with a cola edge and a surprisingly smooth, tea-like impression that hides a lot of alcohol. Strong.
History and origin
Two origin stories compete. The best known credits Robert Butt, a bartender who said he created the drink in the early 1970s at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York, while entering a contest to invent a new drink with triple sec. Another account points to Long Island, a small community in Tennessee, where a man known as "Old Man Bishop" is said to have mixed a similar drink during Prohibition, a story that is much harder to confirm.
Whatever its birthplace, the Long Island Iced Tea became a fixture of American bars and chain restaurants in the 1970s and 1980s. The IBA lists it among its contemporary classics, with fresh lemon and sugar syrup instead of bottled sour mix.
Bartender tips
Use cola sparingly: too much turns it into a sweet soft drink and hides the lemon.
Measure all five spirits with a jigger; 15 ml each is already a lot of alcohol.
Fresh lemon and simple syrup taste far better than ready made sour mix.
