Long Island Iced Tea

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:

    I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I should like to have seen a gallery of coronation beauties, at Westminster Abbey, confronted for a moment by this band of Island girls; their stiffness, formality, and affectation contrasted with the artless vivacity and unconcealed natural graces of these savage maidens. It would be the Venus de’ Medici placed beside a milliner’s doll.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    Mr. Edward Carson, QC: Do you drink champagne yourself?
    Mr. Oscar Wilde: Yes; iced champagne is a favourite drink of mine—strongly against my doctor’s orders.
    Mr. Edward Carson, QC: Never mind your doctor’s orders, sir!
    Mr. Oscar Wilde: I never do.
    Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)

    “I shall sit here, serving tea to friends. . . .”
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)