Long Island Iced Tea

Article by Emily Saladino

Long Island iced tea recipes are fun, fizzy and not for the faint of heart. The drink contains nearly five ounces of liquor, making it more alcoholic than your average martini. And yet, when made correctly, a Long Island cocktail tastes bright and bubbly, not boozy. Food Network Kitchen cracked the code to create this tasty recipe for a Long Island iced tea that you can customize with different spirits.

What Is A Long Island Iced Tea?

A Long Island iced tea cocktail contains five spirits, including tequila, gin, vodka and rum, and is served over ice and garnished with a lemon wedge. While the drink resembles a tall glass of iced tea, its color comes from a splash of cola like Pepsi or Coca-Cola.

The exact origins of the Long Island iced tea recipe are unknown, but some drinks historians say it likely dates to Prohibition, when many people disguised their alcohol consumption. Others believe it was created in the 1970s at a bar named Oak Bench Inn in Babylon, New York, a town on the state’s Long Island.

Long Island Iced Tea Ingredients and Substitutions

Our recipe developers tested various ratios, types of each spirit and different mixers to create this customizable recipe for a Long Island iced tea. Here’s how to make it your own.

Use fresh-squeezed lemon juice. A jolt of fresh citrus brightens the boozy drink, so our recipe developers recommend it over bottled lemon juice or packaged sour or Long Island iced tea mix.

Switch up the spirits. Try aged rum or reposado tequila instead of the white versions or use citron vodka and orange juice instead of triple sec. Swap the tequila for bourbon to make a Long Island iced tea recipe variation called Texas tea.

Try a blue Long Island cocktail. Swap the triple sec for blue Curacao, a similarly orange-scented liquor with a vibrant aqua hue. Top your drink with a lemon-lime soda like Sprite instead of cola. Garnish with a lemon, lime or orange wedge. This eye-catching riff is sometimes called the Alaskan iced tea or Long Island iced sea.

Make a Long Island iced tea with tea. Substitute a little less than a half-cup of iced black tea for the cola, then add a splash of unflavored sparkling water or seltzer for effervescence. If you use unsweetened iced tea, you might want to add a dash of simple syrup to keep the flavors balanced.

To decrease the alcohol content, bump up the soda. If you want less alcohol in your Long Island tea, halve all the spirits and top with twice as much cola, or use half cola and half seltzer.