This classic Long Island Iced Tea is a strong, refreshing cocktail. Easy to make in just 5 minutes and perfect for parties, BBQ’s, and summer!
A Long Island Iced Tea is a popular Drink Recipe you’ll find in bars across the country. It’s strong, refreshing and wickedly easy to make and drink! Check out my Cosmopolitan and Moscow Mule recipes for more classic homemade cocktails.
Why You’ll Love This Drink?
- The sweet, citrusy flavor and fizzy finish make this cocktail incredibly refreshing.
- It’s a fun, crowd-pleasing drink for parties, summer gatherings, or a night at home.
Sabrina’s Long Island Ice Tea Recipe
This Long Island Iced Tea is a classic cocktail that’s refreshing, citrusy, and perfectly balanced. It’s a fun choice when you want an extra special drink to enjoy on a warm afternoon, at a summer BBQ, or during a pool party.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 1 ounce vodka
- 1 ounce rum
- 1 ounce gin
- 1 ounce tequila
- 1 ounce triple sec
- 2 ounces sweet and sour mix
- 2 ounces cola
- 2 slices lemon , thinly sliced
- 2 sprigs mint
Instructions
- To a cocktail shaker add 1 cup ice, vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, and sweet and sour mix.
- Shake well then strain into two highball glasses with ice.
- Top with a splash of cola and garnish with a lemon slice and mint sprigs.
Nutrition
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Note from Sabrina
You’ve probably heard Long Island Iced Tea referred to as a dangerous cocktail. It gets this reputation because there are 5 types of alcohol contained within this one drink. On top of that, the cola, lemon, and orange flavors disguise the taste of alcohol, so it’s easy to drink quickly without noticing. However, if you drink responsibly in moderation, this cocktail is delicious and fun to have at parties.
Table of contents
About this Recipe
While there’s no actual iced tea in a Long Island Iced Tea, it does have a similar refreshing effect. The sweet and sour-cocktail is wonderfully cooling when served over ice in a tall glass and garnished with a lemon wedge. And even though this cocktail is known for its potency and how much alcohol it contains, it’s not as strong as you might think! You only need about half an ounce of each type of alcohol, and after mixing with the sweet and sour mix and coke, you should have a drink that’s around 20% ABV.
Ingredients
- Alcohols: Long Island Iced Tea is known for the volume and variety of alcohol contained in the single tall glass. To make the classic drink mixture, you need vodka, white rum, gin, dark or white tequila, and triple sec. However, you only need ½ ounce of each alcohol per drink, so it’s not too overpowering. The flavors of the spirits balance out surprisingly well after being mixed with the sweet orange flavor of Triple Sec and the other cocktail ingredients.
- Sweet and Sour Mix: Add 2 ounces of sweet and sour mix to the alcohol. This non-alcoholic mix is often added to cocktails. It’s made with equal parts lemon-lime juice and simple syrup to create a tart and sweet liquid mix.
- Cola: Finish the Long Island Iced Tea with 2 ounces of cola. This adds sweetness and carbonation and creates the classic amber color for which the drink was named.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Cocktail Shaker: A cocktail shaker is a bar tool designed to help prepare cocktails and mixed drinks.
- Highball Glass: Highball glass is a type of glassware commonly used for serving various mixed drinks and cocktails, including the classic Long Island Iced Tea.
Can this be made ahead of time?
This cocktail is going to taste best if you make it fresh because it will be perfectly chilled, plus it won’t be watered down and the soda won’t be flat. However, you could mix up the alcohol ahead of time then mix it with ice and add the soda right before you are serving it.
Recipe Tips & Tricks
- Layering: Pour the cola last to create a distinct layering effect and maintain the cocktail’s vibrant colors.
- Quality Ingredients: Use high-quality spirits and fresh lemon juice for the best taste.
- Balance: In your Long Island iced tea, aim for a balanced combination of sweetness, tartness, and the kick of alcohol.
- Chill: Chill the glasses before serving to keep your Long Island Iced Tea extra cold and refreshing without watering it down too quickly.
Pairing Suggestions
The mouthwatering cocktail is also the perfect drink to serve along with your favorite Summer cookout meals. Cook up some Burgers, Smoked St. Louis Ribs, or Grilled Cilantro Lime Shrimp to go with this alcoholic iced tea for an amazing meal.
How to Store
- Store: If you don’t finish the drink, you can store the classic cocktail in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours.
- Freeze: It’s better not to freeze cocktail recipes. The cola and liquors won’t freeze properly, and the liquids will separate. So, making this cocktail recipe as fresh as possible for a fun drink is much better.
Ideas to Serve
Long Ice Tea is a great drink at parties. Add an ice cube tray of ice cubes to your large pitcher or punch bowl. Then add 2 cups of vodka, 2 cups of white rum, 2 cups of gin, 2 cups of tequila, and 2 cups of triple sec to your punch bowl. Stir in 4 cups of the sweet and sour mix. When you’re ready to serve, pour the cola over the top. Use a punch ladle to spoon the crowd-pleasing cocktail into tall glasses over ice, and add garnishes like fresh citrus or a slice of lemon.
Frequent Questions
No, this cocktail doesn’t contain any iced tea despite its name. It gets its name because the amber color of the mixture is similar to a classic iced tea. But remember, this is a much stronger drink than your favorite iced tea!
There are two origin stories for this drink. One is a bartender named Robert Butt, who claims to have made the drink for a 1972 competition at Long Island’s Oak Beach Inn. With this origin story, naming it after Long Island, New York, makes sense. However, others claim the drink started in Tennessee. According to the Tennessee story, it was created during the prohibition era in Long Island, an island in Kingsport, Tennessee, creating a delicious Prohibition-Era Drink. Either way, calling it a “Long Island Iced Tea” comes from where it was invented.
This cocktail is known for its potency and how much alcohol it contains. However, it’s not as strong as you might initially think. While the mixture has several strong liquors, you shouldn’t add too much. After mixing everything with the alcohol, sweet and sour mix, and coke, you should have a drink that’s around 20% ABV. While that is strong, it’s not as bad as you might have guessed. The real trouble is if you add more alcohol than recommended or drink the Long Island Iced Tea too fast. Because the mix is tasty and drinkable, it’s easy to find yourself at the bottom of your glass before you know it, so proceed cautiously.
You can cut this recipe in half if you want enough to serve one person and don’t need the second glass of iced tea. Use ½ ounces of each of the liquors and combine them in the cocktail shaker as usual. Then, pour the mix into your glass of choice. Top with cola, and enjoy your refreshing drink for one
Variations
- Long Beach Iced Tea: This is a fun, fruity variation of Long Island Iced Tea. It contains the same sweet and sour mix and alcoholic ingredients. The key difference is that you’ll swap the cola for cranberry juice to make a tasty pink drink. For this version, you may also want to swap out the lemon slice garnishes for lime slices, as they go nicely with the cranberry flavor.
- Miami Iced Tea: This is another fun variation of the classic boozy iced tea. For the Miami version, swap out the tequila in the original cocktail recipe for an ounce of peach schnapps. Then, pour lemon-lime soda over the cocktail mix instead of cocoa-cola.
- Blue Long Island Iced Tea: Blue Long Island Iced Tea, also known as Electric Long Island Iced Tea, is made with Blue curaçao instead of triple sec. This popular liqueur has a slightly bitter orange flavor and an iconic blue color. To ensure that the cocktail is clear blue, swap out the cola for Sprite or another clear lemon-lime soda.
- Hawaiian Iced Tea: This is an easy tropical twist on the traditional mix. Switch out the cola for pineapple juice and garnish the drink with a pineapple slice.
- Fresh Lemon juice: Instead of a sweet and sour mix, add the tart and sweet flavor to this cocktail recipe by making a fresh lemon and sugar mixture. Squeeze 1 ounce of lemon juice out of a lemon and mix that with an ounce of simple syrup until well combined. This is the perfect freshly squeezed alternative to the sweet and sour mix.
More Classic Cocktail Recipes
Photos used in a previous version of this post
What a great, straightforward recipe! A Long Island is always a hit at my barbecues. I usually use a silver/blanco tequila for these, I was wondering, if I use a reposado or dark tequila instead like you suggested, does it alter the flavor profile significantly, or does it just help with that classic amber color?
You’re welcome! I hope you get to enjoy these this summer. Since it’s such a small amount of alcohol, it won’t alter the flavor or add to the color. I’ve never noticed a difference when drinking silver vs. reposado.