Long Island Iced Tea
Vodka, rum, tequila, gin, and triple sec with a splash of cola — Robert Butt's 1972 creation, cola turning it amber to look like iced tea with no tea in the recipe.
- ½ ozvodka
- ½ ozwhite rum
- ½ ozgin
- ½ ozblanco tequila
- ½ oztriple sec
- ¾ ozfresh lemon juice
- ½ ozsimple syrup
- 1 ozcola(to top)
- lemon wedgegarnish
- 1Fill a highball glass with ice.
- 2Add vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, lemon juice, and simple syrup.
- 3Stir briefly to combine.
- 4Top with cola.
- 5Garnish with a lemon wedge.
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The Long Island Iced Tea was created in 1972 by Robert "Rosebud" Butt, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York, as a competition entry that required the use of triple sec. Butt combined vodka, rum, tequila, gin, and triple sec with a splash of cola that turned the drink amber and gave it the visual appearance of iced tea — with no actual tea in the recipe. The drink's ability to conceal its genuinely high alcohol content behind a sweet, innocuous, familiar appearance made it both widely popular and widely notorious. By the 1990s it had become standard across American bars and particularly associated with college drinking culture. A competing origin claim from bartender Chris Bendicksen of the Sheraton Hotel on Long Island in 1987 is less widely accepted by cocktail historians, who generally credit Butt's earlier claim.
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