Long Island Iced Tea Recipe

About the Long Island Iced Tea

The Long Island Iced Tea cocktail is one of the most popular alcoholic drinks of the '70s and '80s, and it remains a popular order today—so many of us have a story about the crazy nights that started with a strong LIIT. It's rumored to have been invented on New York's Long Island during Prohibition and named because it resembles a large glass of iced tea.This is not a fancy cocktail by any means, but the Long Island (as it's commonly called) gets the job done, and depending on which ingredients you use it can actually be quite tasty.What alcohol is in a Long Island Iced Tea recipe?The Long Island Iced Tea is typically made with five types of liquors. That includes four full-proof spirits—vodka, gin, white rum (or light rum) and tequila—plus a triple sec or other orange liqueur.We suggest making a Long Island Iced Tea with middle-shelf booze, as mixing all of the different types of spirits together will muddle up any delicate flavors and nuances of your more expensive top-shelf bottles.How to make a Long Island Iced TeaBuild the Long Island Iced Tea directly in a collins glass or a highball glass. Pour your favorite brands of the above-mentioned spirits into the glass over ice with fresh lemon juice and homemade simple syrup. (For the best results, always opt for fresh citrus juice and steer clear of any store-bought sour mix.) Top it off with cola and give everything a little stir, then garnish the drink with a lemon wedge or an orange slice.There's really no need to shake the ingredients in a cocktail shaker, unless you are looking for some additional dilution. If you do choose to shake, just make sure to strain the contents over fresh ice, rather than dumping the whole drink into the glass straight from the shaker.Contrary to what you may find in some recipes elsewhere, we do not recommend substituting cranberry juice for the cola, as the flavor profile is completely different and you lose the bubbly brightness of the carbonated soda. Coke is the way to go here, as it gives you that trademark LIIT flavor you know and love (or hazily remember from your youth).Variations of the Long Island Iced TeaA popular variation of the Long Island Iced Tea recipe is the AMF drink (or the Adios Motherfucker, as the cocktail is delightfully known), which swaps two ingredients—blue curaçao instead of triple sec, and lemon-lime soda instead of cola—to create an electric blue version of this cocktail.As you take a sip of the Adios (as it's commonly called in more conservative circles), you'll notice that the taste is quite similar to the classic Long Island.