How Do You Actually Make A Long Island Iced Tea?

There's no denying the bravado of the Long Island iced tea. While the drink contains no actual iced tea, its color and lemon wedge garnish evoke a tall glass of the beverage. This cocktail is boozy — not so much in terms of total alcohol content, but in the sheer variety of liquors involved. 

As a kid, did you ever pour a little bit of every soda from a beverage machine into your cup? Long Islands are the adult version of that — except with liquor instead of soda. A Long Island iced tea contains half an ounce of vodka, gin, tequila, rum, and triple sec, along with 1 to 2 ounces of sour mix and cola, typically served in large format glasses like hurricanes, collins (not to be confused with a highball glass), or pints.

You can either build the drink straight in the glass or in a shaker tin. Add ice and pour everything but the soda into your shaker or glass — shake (or stir), and top the mix with the cola and a slice of lemon. The finished drink contains only two and a half ounces of alcohol — less than a classic gin martini. The trouble with these isn't so much the amount of liquor as it is how easily you can drink them without noticing the alcohol.

The origins of Long Islands are highly debated but one popular story traces it back to the 1970s at the Oak Beach Inn in Long Island, New York, where Robert Butt allegedly invented it for a cocktail contest. Due to the popularity of this drink, it has birthed many versions. Long Beach iced teas and Hawaiian iced teas are sweeter and fruitier options featuring cranberry and pineapple juice respectively in place of cola. If you're a fan of the slight carbonation from cola in Long Islands, you can add a splash of lemon-lime soda to these. For an even boozier spin on a Long Island, you can make a Texas Tea, with an extra half ounce of whiskey added to the otherwise same build. 

The vibrantly colored variations like the Tokyo tea, AMF (aka an Adios), and the Black Widow all feature additional liqueurs with lemon-lime soda instead of cola. A half ounce of the iconic verdant liqueur, Midori, is in the Tokyo tea — while AMFs will use the same amount of blue curaçao. Black Widows gets two additional liqueurs in their builds — a half ounce each of blue curaçao and Chambord.

The total alcohol for Texas Teas and the last three adaptations does increase to 3 to 3 ½ ounces of booze in the finished drink. All variations will be served in the same glassware as traditional Long Islands, but the garnishes are totally up to you — lemon, lime, cherry — have fun with it!