Long Island Iced Tea

Prep: 3 mins
Cook: 0 mins
Total: 3 mins
Serving: 1 serving
Yield: 1 cocktail

Among the most famous cocktails, Long Island iced tea is at the top of the list. Despite the fact that it contains no tea, this cocktail is as refreshing as a tall glass of iced tea. The taste is surprisingly similar too, but it can pack a punch, and all that alcohol can quickly sneak up on you.

Since every bartender knows the recipe, you can order it pretty much anywhere, and it's simple enough to make at home as long as you have all of the ingredients. Get ready to pour because the recipe requires five white distilled spirits (including triple sec), a shot of sour mix, and cola. Though it's strong, if you use decent-quality ingredients and slip it slowly, you can enjoy this refresher without regrets.

What's a Long Island Iced Tea Made Of?

The Long Island iced tea recipe is a laundry list of spirits and mixers that seemingly should not play well together. But although this drink makes very little sense on paper it tastes remarkably cohesive, with a sweet and tangy flavor and a color that makes it appear very much like tea. Here's what you'll need.

  • Gin
  • Light rum
  • Vodka
  • Blanco tequila
  • Triple sec
  • Sour mix
  • Cola

For the liquors, don't waste your top shelf stuff, but also steer clear of bottom of the barrel booze you wouldn't put in other mixed drinks.

As for the sour mix, feel free to use a good-quality store-bought sour mix or stir together your own homemade sour mix. It'll last for two or three weeks, so it's worth making a big batch if you make lots of cocktails that call for it.

Finally, the cola does a lot of heavy lifting in this drink, providing not only the characteristic tea color but also complex flavor with notes of vanilla, citrus, and spice. Choose a cola with depth of flavor over one that is sickly sweet.


Who Created the Long Island Iced Tea?

The story of Long Island iced tea is as sordid as its ingredient list, and its true origin may be lost to history. One Prohibition-era story credits Charles Bishop, a 1930s moonshiner in then-dry Tennessee. Jump to the 1970s, and credit for the concoction's creation could go to Robert Bott, a bartender from Long Island.

Then there is the tale that the Long Island was an original drink of the T.G.I. Friday's franchise. It is entirely possible that Bishop made the drink and that it was forgotten for a few decades until Bott remade it and gave it the now-famous name. At some point, the restaurant probably caught wind of it and claimed it as their own (this is not unheard of).

Why is the Long Island Iced Tea So Notorious?

The Long Island iced tea is notorious for getting people drunk. The problem is that it's an easy drinker that's often made too strong. Many bartenders (professional and amateur alike) will overpour the liquors. This not only makes the drink stronger, but it also knocks the taste out of balance.

To make a better Long Island iced tea, keep in mind that flavor is more important than potency. In total, this recipe contains 2 1/2 ounces of liquor. While it is on the light end of the Long Island's spectrum, it's still the same as drinking three or four beers.

What's the Difference Between a Long Island Iced Tea and Texas Tea?

To turn a Long Island into a Texas tea, simply add 1/2 ounce bourbon for an even more potent mix. Some people mistakenly refer to this as a Long Island, but whiskey is not included in the original (or accepted) recipe.

Long Island Iced Tea

The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

"Truth be told, this cocktail is my guilty pleasure, and this recipe highlights the club classic. The variations are very appropriate. I am in favor of shaking the liquor ingredients with fresh lemon juice and simple syrup, and then floating cola. This recipe recalls the tremendous potential and fun that this cocktail represents." —Sean Johnson

Long Island iced tea garnished with a lemon
A Note From Our Recipe Tester

Ingredients

  • 1/2 ounce gin

  • 1/2 ounce light rum

  • 1/2 ounce vodka

  • 1/2 ounce blanco tequila

  • 1/2 ounce triple sec

  • 1 ounce sour mix, store-bought or homemade

  • 1 to 2 ounces cola, to taste

  • Lemon wedge, for garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Ingredients to make a Long Island Iced Tea

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

  2. Pour the gin, rum, vodka, tequila, triple sec, and sour mix into a collins glass filled with ice. Stir well.

    Top the glass off with cola.

    A collins glass with gin, rum, vodka, tequila, triple sec, sour mix, cola, and ice

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

  3. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

    A Long Island iced tea garnished with a lemon wedge

    The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

How Strong Is Long Island Iced Tea?

The five liquors make Long Island iced tea seem like a strong drink, but if you do the math, it's not terribly potent compared to other cocktails. When you pour 80-proof liquors, 60-proof triple sec, and top it with 2 ounces of soda, its alcohol content falls in the 16 percent ABV (32 proof) range. That is about the same as a strong rum and Coke and half the strength of a gin martini. Still, as noted above, this recipe is on the lighter end of the Long Island Tea spectrum, and it still has as much alcohol as three or four beers.

Long Island Iced Tea Recipe Variations

When a drink is this famous, there's bound to be many different ways to make it. Some of the most popular variations include:

  • Shake the liquors and sour mix, strain it into a glass with fresh ice, then top it with cola. This approach adds dilution and creates a mellower flavor that's rather pleasant.
  • Skip the sour mix and use 1/2 ounce each of simple syrup and fresh-squeezed lemon juice instead.
  • To make it a bit stronger (without going overboard), try 3/4 ounce each of the four liquors (gin, light rum, vodka, and blanco tequila) and 1/2 ounce each of triple sec, lemon juice, and simple syrup (or 1 ounce sour mix for the last two). This version has a total of 3 3/4 ounces of liquor and an alcohol content of 20 percent ABV (40 proof).


The Long Island also inspired many other "iced tea" cocktails over the years. They're all made the same way and simply replace an ingredient or two:

  • Long Beach iced tea: Contains everything in the Long Island, but the ​cola is replaced with cranberry juice.
  • Miami iced tea: Peach schnapps replaces the tequila, and lemon-lime is the soda of choice.
  • Hawaiian iced tea: This drink is topped with pineapple juice instead of soda.
  • Electric iced tea: Blue curaçao replaces the triple sec, and the recipe uses lemon-lime soda to create a brilliant blue drink.



How To Make Long Island Iced Teas for a Crowd

To make a large batch of Long Island Iced Teas for a party, follow these steps:

  1. Multiply each ingredient in the cocktail by the number of servings you want to make.
  2. Use the resulting numbers to help you figure out how many bottles of each ingredient you'll need to buy. Remember that alcohol is usually sold in 750mL bottles. 750mL is approximately 25 1/4 ounces.
  3. Once you have your ingredients, measure them out, except for the cola, according to the math you did in Step 1.
  4. Mix the ingredients together, place in a serving vessel, and chill well.
  5. For each cocktail, measure out 3 1/2 ounces of the batched cocktail and pour over ice.
  6. Top off each cocktail with cola to preserve its effervescence.
  7. Garnish and serve.


Read more about how to batch cocktails here.

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
418 Calories
2g Fat
82g Carbs
7g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 1
Amount per serving
Calories 418
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 2g 3%
Saturated Fat 0g 1%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 18mg 1%
Total Carbohydrate 82g 30%
Dietary Fiber 19g 67%
Total Sugars 35g
Protein 7g
Vitamin C 360mg 1,799%
Calcium 177mg 14%
Iron 4mg 23%
Potassium 946mg 20%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)