Boston Trash Can
A Boston Trash Can is six 15ml pours over ice: vodka, gin, white rum, triple sec, blue curaçao and peach schnapps. An opened 250ml can of Red Bull goes into the glass upside down, and the blue drink turns green as the yellow energy drink comes out. The same build is often sold as the Irish Trash Can, or just the Trash Can. It is a relative of the Long Island Iced Tea, with the tequila, lemon and syrup taken out and peach schnapps and Red Bull put in. It carries about 3.0 UK units, the same as a Long Island, plus a full can of caffeine. Caffeine does not make you any less drunk; it makes it harder to tell. Use a glass wide enough for the can, and turn the can in last.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Upturned Red Bull can
Ingredients
15ml
A light white rum. It adds a little roundness and nothing that competes with the liqueurs.
15ml
Cointreau is the benchmark, 40% ABV on its own product page. With the blue curaçao it makes orange one of the two main flavours.
15ml
The colour. An orange liqueur coloured blue, usually 20 to 25% ABV. It is what turns green when the yellow Red Bull meets it.
15ml
Takes the tequila’s place and makes the drink fruit-led. Most bottles sit between 15 and 25% ABV; choose one that tastes of peach rather than sweets.
250ml
One standard 250ml can, opened and turned upside down into the glass at the last moment. Sugar-free works the same way; it cuts the sugar, not the caffeine.
Instructions
Choose a wide highball or a pint glass that the can fits into upside down.
Fill the glass about two-thirds with cubed ice, leaving room for the can.
Measure the vodka, gin, white rum, triple sec, blue curaçao and peach schnapps over the ice.
Stir for a few seconds to mix and chill.
Open the Red Bull and turn it upside down into the glass in one quick movement, so the opening ends up below the surface.
Serve at once with a straw long enough to reach past the can.
Expert Tip
Choose the glass before you start. The can has to sit upside down with its opening below the surface of the drink, and many highballs are too narrow for that. A pint glass always takes it. Turn the can in quickly, and only when the drink is about to be served. The Red Bull comes out gradually and the colour moves from blue to green as it does, which is the reason to order one. Done early, that has already happened by the time the glass arrives. Give the drinker a straw long enough to reach past the can to the bottom of the glass.
Behind the Boston Trash Can
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
No bar, bartender or date is attached to the Trash Can under any of its names. It belongs with the drinks that pair spirits and energy drinks, but no record ties it to a place or a person, and the Boston and Irish in its names are not evidence of where it was first made.
How It Relates to the Long Island
The Trash Can keeps four of the Long Island Iced Tea’s five pours: vodka, gin, white rum and triple sec. It drops the tequila and the fresh lemon, and adds two liqueurs and an energy drink. That makes it a different kind of drink, with no fresh acid, more sugar, and peach and orange in front of the spirits.
It shares the blue curaçao with the AMF, and the colour logic is the same: blue meeting yellow turns green. In an AMF that is a fault. In a Trash Can it is the point.
The Can
The upturned can is the whole idea. Turned in quickly with its opening below the surface, the Red Bull comes out over the course of the drink rather than in one rush, so the drink changes as it goes. The colour follows: blue curaçao at the start, teal, then green as more of the energy drink mixes in.
The glass decides whether any of that works. A standard 250ml can needs a wide highball or a pint glass; in anything narrower it sits on the ice above the drink and does nothing.
Caffeine and Strength
Six 15ml pours carry about 3.0 UK units, the same as a Long Island, and the Red Bull adds a full can of caffeine. Caffeine does not lower your blood alcohol. It can make you feel more alert than you are, and that is how a second one arrives sooner than intended. Count one Trash Can as three drinks.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Boston Trash Can?
Is a Boston Trash Can the same as an Irish Trash Can?
How strong is a Boston Trash Can?
Is it safe to mix alcohol and Red Bull?
Why is the can upside down?
How is it different from a Long Island Iced Tea?
What glass do I need for a Trash Can?
Sources.
Correct as of 18 October 2026.
- Cointreau, “Cointreau Triple Sec” (producer’s product page: footer gives 40% Alc./Vol.).
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Long Island Iced Tea
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Tokyo Iced Tea
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 18 October 2026