Highball · Party · Summer

Long Island Iced Tea

Five spirits, lemon, syrup, and a splash of cola on top. It looks like iced tea and behaves like nothing of the sort.

Base: Vodka
Glass: Highball glass
Method: Build
Strength: 40% ABV

Ingredients

15 mlVodka1 swap
Any neutral vodkahigh
Little change
15 mlTequila
15 mlWhite Rum1 swap
Any light rumhigh
Little change
15 mlGin1 swap
Any London dry ginhigh
Depends on the brand’s botanicals
15 mlCointreau1 swap
Triple sec or curaçaomedium
Slightly sweeter/less crisp
25 mlLemon juice1 swap
Fresh lime juicemedium
A touch sharper
30 mlSimple Syrup
top upCola

How to make

Technique

Build · 10–15s

Building straight in the glass keeps it simple and preserves any fizz.

Add all ingredients into highball glass filled with ice.
Stir gently.

Serve

Glass

Highball glassAlso fine: Collins glass, Tall tumbler

Garnish

Garnish with lemon slice (Optional).The drink is finished without it.

optional

Taste & nutrition

40%ABV

209kcal

4.61Drinks

StrengthSpirit-forward

Sweet to dryBalanced

Estimated from ingredient amounts and assumed ABVs — not a lab measurement.

Good to know

Use freshly squeezed juice — bottled tastes flat.
Add the fizzy mixer last so it keeps its bubbles.

History

Year1970s

PlaceNew York, USA

Created byAttributed to Robert “Rosebud” Butt

Notorious for its strength, the Long Island Iced Tea packs vodka, gin, rum, tequila and triple sec into a glass, topped with cola and lemon so it looks — and almost tastes — like iced tea. It is usually traced to Robert "Rosebud" Butt at a Long Island bar in the early 1970s. By the 1980s it was sweeping bars across America. Its disguised potency is exactly the point.

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