The Long Island Iced Tea is an unusual cocktail in many ways. It has 7 ingredients, 5 of them alcoholic. So, it’s a bit of a beast of a cocktail. No subtlety, just a ‘wam-bam thank you mam’ kind of hit.
If it was a car it’d be a Vauxhall Insignia V8. All brake horse power and raw energy.
The Long Island Iced Tea is that sort of drink. And it’s mixed with Coke for goodness sake. You might as well throw in a can of red bull as well, and enjoy the night. Cos, you sure as hell won’t be sleeping!
The reason it’s referred to as ‘tea’ is because it’s supposed to be a sort of opaque brown colour, with about the same amount of Coca-Cola as the alcohol combined. However, this is a bit potent for most people. Understandably then, they add more Coke. This may make it a bit more palatable, but it doesn’t look like tea. Therefore I’d recommend making it properly but with plenty of cubes of ice.
Whilst I don’t know the origins of the LIIT, I suspect it was made up by a bartender who was keen to put as much in as possible. This then, is my recipe and close to the original way it was invented.
Long Island Iced Tea recipe
Start with a long straight sided glass known as a Highball. Into your cocktail shaker goes
- 25 ml vodka
- 25 ml gin
- 25 ml light rum (try Bacardi or Havana Club 3 year old)
- 25 ml blanco tequila
- 15 ml Cointreau plus
- 15 ml concentrated lemon juice
Shake the mixture up with some ice in your cocktail shaker, and then pour into your glass, with plenty more ice. Finally top up with 125 ml coke and you have one popular cocktail. Straws and a parasol and the job’s a good ‘un!
Apart from giving an alcoholic hit, I’m not sure what role the spirits play in this drink really. So, I developed a dark spirits version of this the Caribbean Black Iced Tea. See what you think.