A Long Island cocktail is 0.5 oz (15 ml) each of vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila and triple sec, shaken with 1 oz of sweet and sour mix, strained over ice and topped with a splash of cola. Those small, equal pours are what keep it tasting like a bright cola-lemon highball. Double them, as many bars do, and it turns harsh.
The Long Island Iced Tea was built for a triple sec contest. That’s the story most bartenders repeat, and it explains the drink better than its reputation does: a measured cocktail where an orange liqueur and four clear spirits hide inside something that looks like a glass of iced tea.
Somewhere along the way the half-ounce pours became full ounces, and the drink became a dare. This Long Island cocktail recipe goes back to the original spec. It’s still strong. It also tastes good, which is the part people forget.
Why do Long Islands taste so rough at most bars?
Free pouring. Five spirits at a full ounce each is 5 oz of liquor in one glass, and no amount of sour mix covers that. The drink goes hot and muddy, and the cola can’t do anything about it.
At the classic spec, the glass holds 2.5 oz of spirits in total. The vodka, gin, rum and tequila are usually 40% alcohol, while triple sec ranges from lighter liqueurs to 40% bottles. In US terms, where the NIAAA defines a standard drink as 1.5 oz of 40% spirits, that works out to roughly one and a half standard drinks. Strong, and drinkable.
So the jigger is the most important tool here. Measure every pour, even if you feel silly doing it at home.
Where the name comes from
There’s no tea in it. The name comes from the color: once a splash of cola settles into five clear spirits and lemony sour mix, the glass turns the amber-brown of iced tea.
The drink is most often credited to Robert “Rosebud” Butt, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn in Babylon, New York. The usual version says he made it in 1972 for a contest that required triple sec. Five clear spirits, sour mix and cola made a drink that looked harmless on the table, which is a big part of how it got famous.
Choosing the spirits, sour mix and cola
Keep the spirits clear. Light rum and silver (blanco) tequila keep the color right and the flavor clean. An aged rum or reposado makes the drink darker and heavier, and the cola starts tasting like a rum and coke. If that’s what you want, a Cuba Libre does it better.
Gin is the bottle that changes the drink most. A London Dry gin adds a pine note that reads as “iced tea” more than you’d expect. Vodka, on the other hand, mainly adds strength.
Sour mix is where most homemade Long Islands go wrong. Bottled mixes are often sweet and flat. Homemade is simply equal parts fresh lemon juice and simple syrup, with a little lime juice if you like it sharper. It’s the same sweet-sour balance a good margarita depends on.
Cola is the color and the fizz, not the main flavor. Use a regular cola, cold, and add it last.
Recipe: Long Island Iced Tea
Prep time: 5 minutes. Total time: 5 minutes. Serves 1.
Ingredients
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) vodka
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) London Dry gin
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) light rum
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) silver tequila
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) triple sec
- 30 ml (1 oz) sweet and sour mix, preferably homemade
- 30 to 60 ml (1 to 2 oz) cola, to top
- 1 lemon wedge, for garnish
- Ice, for the glass
Instructions
- Fill a Collins or tall pint glass with ice.
- Measure the vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila and triple sec into a shaker.
- Add the sweet and sour mix, fill the shaker with ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the outside of the shaker feels frosty.
- Strain into the prepared glass.
- Pour the cola in slowly over the top until the drink turns the color of iced tea, usually 1 to 2 oz.
- Squeeze the lemon wedge over the glass, drop it in and serve right away.
Notes
Never shake the cola. It loses its fizz and the drink goes flat. A tall glass packed with ice also slows dilution, so the last sip still tastes sharp.
If the first sip tastes too sweet, your sour mix is the problem. Add a squeeze of lemon rather than more cola.
Long Beach, Tokyo Tea and the other variations
Each of these keeps the same half-ounce base. That’s the rule that holds them together.
Long Beach Iced Tea
Swap the cola for cranberry juice. The drink turns pink and tarter, closer to a beach-bar highball than an iced tea lookalike. Use 100% cranberry juice if you can find it, since cranberry juice cocktail makes the glass too sweet. If you like that tart-cranberry direction, the Cosmopolitan is the more elegant version of it.
Adios MF
Replace the triple sec with blue curaçao and the cola with lemon-lime soda. It turns bright blue and sweeter, more party drink than classic highball. Keep the sour mix fresh and go light on the soda so it stays tart.
Texas Tea
Add 0.5 oz of bourbon to the standard base. It gives the drink vanilla and oak that go well with cola, and it makes it stronger. A little extra lemon and a slightly bigger cola top keep it from tasting heavy.
Tokyo Tea
Swap the triple sec for Midori and the cola for lemon-lime soda. It’s bright green and tastes of melon. Midori is sweet, so cut the sour mix back a little if your first sip tastes syrupy, and garnish with a lime wheel.
How do you make Long Island Iced Tea for a crowd?
Batch the base, never the cola. For six drinks, combine 3 oz each of vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila and triple sec with 6 oz of sour mix. Chill it well.
To serve, pour the base over ice in each glass and top with 1 to 2 oz of cola right there. Cola in the pitcher goes flat before the last glass is poured. A pitcher with a tight lid or a small dispenser keeps the base cold on the table (these drink dispensers and pitchers cover the sizes that work for a party).
Label the pitcher. A batch that looks like iced tea will get poured like iced tea, so smaller glasses and a jug of water nearby are a good idea.
Long Island Iced Tea questions
What is in a Long Island Iced Tea?
A classic Long Island Iced Tea contains vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila and triple sec, 0.5 oz each, plus sweet and sour mix, a cola top, ice and a lemon wedge. There is no tea in it.
Why is it called a Long Island Iced Tea?
It’s called that because it looks like iced tea once the cola is added, and because its best-known origin story places it at a bar in Babylon on Long Island, New York, in the 1970s.
How strong is a Long Island Iced Tea?
Made to the classic spec, one Long Island Iced Tea contains 2.5 oz of spirits, roughly one and a half US standard drinks. Bar versions with full-ounce pours can contain twice that.
Should you shake a Long Island Iced Tea?
Shake the spirits and sour mix with ice, then add the cola in the glass. Shaking cola kills the carbonation and leaves the drink flat.
What glass do you serve it in?
Serve it in a Collins, highball or tall pint glass filled with ice. The height gives room for the cola top and enough ice to keep it cold.
Key takeaways
- Use 0.5 oz each of vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila and triple sec.
- Make sour mix from equal parts fresh lemon juice and simple syrup.
- Shake the spirits and sour mix, but add cola only in the glass.
- Clear spirits keep the drink’s color and clean flavor.
- For a crowd, batch the base and top each glass with cola as you serve.
Setting up a cookout bar around it
A Long Island wants salty, fatty food next to it: wings, fries, nachos, pulled pork sliders. Pour it at a backyard cookout with the batched base in the fridge, cola on ice and lemon wedges cut ahead. When the weather turns, the same jigger and shaker carry straight into these fall cocktails.
Long Island Iced Tea
A proper Long Island Iced Tea uses 0.5 oz each of five spirits (vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila, triple sec), 1 oz sweet and sour mix, and a cola top in a tall glass over ice.
Ingredients
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) vodka
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) London Dry gin
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) light (white) rum
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) silver (blanco) tequila
- 15 ml (0.5 oz) triple sec
- 30 ml (1 oz) sweet and sour mix, preferably homemade
- 30 to 60 ml (1 to 2 oz) cola, to top
- 1 lemon wedge, for garnish
- Ice, for the glass
Instructions
- Fill a tall Collins or pint glass to the rim with ice. The drink needs the volume of ice to stay cold while the cola goes in, so do not skimp here.
- Measure 15 ml (0.5 oz) each of vodka, gin, light rum, silver tequila, and triple sec into the bottom half of a Boston shaker. Use a jigger every time. Eyeballing the pours is what breaks this drink.
- Add 30 ml (1 oz) sweet and sour mix to the shaker. Fill the shaker with ice, seal, and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds, until the outside of the metal frosts.
- Strain the shaker contents into the prepared ice-filled glass. The liquid should come about three-quarters of the way up the glass.
- Top with 30 to 60 ml (1 to 2 oz) cola, pouring slowly so the color settles evenly. The finished drink should look like iced tea, not like cola. If it looks too dark, you used too much cola.
- Squeeze a lemon wedge over the top and drop it into the glass. Add a long straw and serve immediately.
Notes
The half-ounce spec is non-negotiable for a drink at 22 percent ABV. Doubling each pour to a full ounce gets you to 5 ounces of spirit in one glass, which is closer to a flight than a cocktail and will hit accordingly. The original 1972 spec uses the half-ounce rule for a reason.
Shake the sour mix with the spirits before the cola goes in. Shaking after the cola is added flattens the carbonation and gives you a glass of warm brown sugar water. Build, shake, strain, top, garnish, serve.
Last update on 2026-10-03 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API