If you're into thinkin' and drinkin'

Episode 13: Going Way Back to Long Island – Long Island Iced Tea

Cocktails are all about crafting, sipping, and enjoying the experience. To many, creating a cocktail is equivalent to cooking a fine meal. Raw ingredients carefully mixed to generate a taste that is to be savored, to be discussed for the nuances of the flavors and the way the ingredients play off one another.

And then we have the Long Island Iced Tea! This monster of a drink features all the booze with about 1 ounce each of five different liquors, and just 2 ounces of those pesky non-alcoholic ingredients.

The kicker is that it unexpectedly tastes good, which is probably why drinking Long Island Iced Teas will quickly turn you into a rabid werewolf. I repeat, WEREWOLF!

Like a number of the cocktails we have covered, this one also has some disputed origins. Was it created by bartender Robert Butt in the 1970s? Did it appear in the 1960s in cookbooks? Or was this a creation that goes all the way back to the days of prohibition?

Join us as we discuss this “frat party in a glass” as one newspaper article called it. We explore the origins of this beast, how it might have got its name, the notorious Oak Beach Inn and owner Bob Matheson, and some alleged creative drinking in 1920s Tennessee.

The ingredients are as follows:

  • 1 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. gin
  • 1 oz. white rum
  • 1 oz. white tequila
  • 1 oz. triple sec
  • 1 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • 3/4 oz. simple syrup
  • Top off with cola

 

Transition music: Cephalopod by Kevin MacLeod
Closing Music: Long Island I Swear by The Matt Kurz One

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