A Long Island Iced Tea is a type of mixed drink that tastes similar to iced tea and is made with, among other ingredients, vodka, gin, tequila, and rum. A popular version mixes equal parts vodka, gin, tequila, rum, and triple sec with 1½ parts sour mix and a splash of cola. Most variants use equal parts of the main liquors but include a smaller amount of triple sec (or other orange-flavored liqueur). Close variants often replace the sour mix with lemon juice, replace the cola with actual iced tea, or add white crème de menthe; however, most variants do not include any tea, despite the name of the drink. Some restaurants substitute brandy for the tequila.
The drink has a much higher alcohol concentration (about 22 percent) than most highball drinks due to the several liquors and the relatively small amount of mixer. Long islands can be ordered "extra long", which further increases the alcohol to mixer ratio.
Outside the United States, this highball is often altered, due to the unpopularity of sour mix. Long Island Iced Tea served outside the US is often made of liquors and cola alone (without sour mix), with lemon or lime juice, orange juice or with lime cordial.
Read more about Long Island Iced Tea: Origin
Famous quotes containing the words long, island, iced and/or tea:
“this old Quaker graveyard where the bones
Cry out in the long night for the hurt beast
Bobbing by Ahabs whaleboats in the East.”
—Robert Lowell (19171977)
“In all things I would have the island of a man inviolate. Let us sit apart as the gods, talking from peak to peak all round Olympus. No degree of affection need invade this religion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Mr. Edward Carson, QC: Do you drink champagne yourself?
Mr. Oscar Wilde: Yes; iced champagne is a favourite drink of minestrongly against my doctors orders.
Mr. Edward Carson, QC: Never mind your doctors orders, sir!
Mr. Oscar Wilde: I never do.”
—Oscar Wilde (18541900)
“O how terrible it must be for a young man
seated before a family and the family thinking
We never saw him before! He wants our Mary Lou!
After tea and homemade cookies they ask What do you do for a living”
—Gregory Corso (b. 1930)