Tokyo Iced Tea Recipe: The Green Long Island

Ingredients

½ oz vodkae.g. Absolut · Smirnoff · Grey Goose · Ketel One · Belvedere
½ oz white rume.g. Bacardi · Havana Club · Plantation · Don Q · Flor de Caña
½ oz blanco tequilae.g. Olmeca Altos · Patrón · Don Julio · Espolòn · El Jimador
½ oz London dry gine.g. Tanqueray · Gordon's · Beefeater · Bombay Sapphire · Sipsmith
½ oz triple sece.g. Cointreau · Bols · Marie Brizard · DeKuyper · Giffard
¾ oz melon liqueur Midori is the usual choicee.g. Midori · Bols · DeKuyper
¾ oz lemon juice
¼ oz simple syrup
top up with lemon-lime soda about 60 ml

Garnish: Lemon wheel and cherry · Ice: Ice cubes

Method

Add vodka, rum, tequila, gin, triple sec, melon liqueur, lemon juice and syrup to a shaker with ice.
Shake briefly, about 5 to 8 seconds, just to chill and mix.
Strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice cubes.
Top with about 60 ml lemon-lime soda and give one gentle stir.
Garnish with a lemon wheel and a cherry.

Watch it made

Tokyo Iced Tea

Taste

Sweet melon up front, then sharp lemon and a light fizz. Despite the easy flavor it carries a full 75 ml of spirits, so it is much stronger than it tastes.

History and origin

The Tokyo Iced Tea belongs to the large family of Long Island Iced Tea variations, drinks built on the same idea of equal small measures of vodka, rum, tequila, gin and triple sec lengthened with a sour element and a soft drink. The Long Island itself became a bar staple in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s, and bartenders soon began swapping its cola for other mixers.

In this version the defining ingredient is melon liqueur, a category made famous by Midori, the green melon liqueur produced by the Japanese company Suntory. That Japanese link is almost certainly where the name comes from; there is no reliable record of the drink being created in Tokyo, and no known inventor. Other members of the family include the Long Beach Iced Tea with cranberry juice and the Adios Motherf***er with blue curaçao.

Bartender tips

Keep every spirit at 15 ml: pouring the old 30 ml per bottle makes a drink of well over 150 ml of spirits that tastes of nothing but alcohol.
Fresh lemon juice with a little syrup beats bottled sour mix by a wide margin and keeps the green color clear rather than murky.
If the drink is too sweet, cut the melon liqueur to 15 ml rather than adding more lemon.

Variations

Long Island Iced Tea: The original: the same five spirits with lemon juice and syrup, topped with cola instead of melon liqueur and lemon-lime soda.
Long Beach Iced Tea: The same base with cranberry juice in place of the cola.
Adios Motherf***er: Blue curaçao instead of triple sec and melon liqueur, topped with lemon-lime soda for an electric blue drink.

Frequently asked questions

How strong is a Tokyo Iced Tea?

With five spirits at 15 ml each it contains about as much alcohol as two to three standard drinks, even though it tastes light and fruity.

Is there tea in a Tokyo Iced Tea?

No. Like the Long Island, the name refers only to the look of the drink; it contains no tea at all.

What can I use instead of Midori?

Any green melon liqueur works. If you have none, the drink becomes a lemon-lime Long Island, which is still pleasant but loses its color and melon note.

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