A Rowdy and Boisterous Cocktail
The Long Island Iced Tea has it’s roots set all the way back in the early 1920’s… Prohibition Days. This was a cocktail mixed up with pretty much anything they had behind the bar and sweetened up with some maple syrup. Prohibition did bring us some pretty awesome and creative drinks! Time smoothed out those recipes.
In the 70’s this cocktail made a true resurgence and another guy, Bob ‘Rosebud’ Butt takes credit for coming up with a new multi-spirited cocktail incorporating Triple Sec. Regardless of how this cocktail came around, the sheer amount of booze in this drink is enough for bartenders to seriously monitor their patrons for messiness.
Booze in a Long Island Iced Tea
Almost anywhere you buy liquor, you can find a bottle of premixed Long Island Iced Tea mix. This is a premade blend of the clear spirits put into the drink. If you find the Long Island on special, maybe for happy hour, you are certainly going to be consuming a single ounce of this blended spirit along with the mixes outlined below. The correct way to make up one of these drinks is to use
- 1/2 oz of Gin
- 1/2 oz of Vodka
- 1/2 oz of White Rum
- 1/2 oz of Tequila (probably a Silver or Blanco)
- 1/2 oz of Triple Sec
- top off with equal parts bar mix and cola
Be sure to build this drink in a tall glass, with lots of ice. The more cola in this glass, the sweeter it will be and when a drink is sweet your customers are certainly going to suck it back real quick. How long has that Cuba Libre sat on the table before you ordered another? A strong tasting drink, and a sour one, should slow them down a little.
Garnish this cocktail with a lemon slice or wedge. We all know iced tea usually has a lemon on the side of the glass, so the Long Island version of this hard iced tea shouldn’t be any different!
