LONG ISLAND ICED TEA

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.^[1]
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), with lemon or lime juice, or with lime cordial.

Contents

Variations

Popular culture

See also

External links

Notes

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 ^[2].
'Adios Motherfucker:' Also known as "Electric Iced Tea" and "Alaska Iced Tea" due to its azure hue; known as "James Tea Kirk" at Quark’s Bar & Restaurant within the 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.

'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:' Depending on who you ask, this either substitutes brandy for gin or, alternatively keeps the gin and adds vodka, bourbon whiskey, and sweet and sour mix.
'Georgia Iced Tea:' This drink calls for sweet tea in place of Coca-Cola.
'The Hamptons Iced Tea' is a cocktail made with Cointreau, gin, rum, tequila, vodka, lemon juice and sour mix. It is similar to the Long Island Iced Tea and is named for The Hamptons, a summer colony in New York.

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 Broadway musical ''Avenue Q'', the 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 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 strip club scene of The Girl Next Door Kelly orders a scotch on the rocks and Matthew says he'll have the same, then changes his mind to a Long Island Iced Tea.
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

★ History and discussion of various claims

★

Notes

1. Degrof, Dale: "The Craft of the Cocktail". Clarkson Potter, 2002.
2. [1]