Long Island Iced Tea
A Long Island Iced Tea is five 15ml pours, vodka, blanco tequila, white rum, gin and Cointreau, with 25ml fresh lemon juice and 30ml sugar syrup, built over ice in a highball and finished with a short cola float. That is the International Bartenders Association specification. The IBA says to top with cola; we measure it at 30ml. The cola gives it the colour of iced tea. There is no tea in it. It is strong: about 3.0 UK units, three 25ml pub singles in one glass, behind a drink that tastes of lemon and cola. It goes wrong in three ways, usually together: free-poured spirits, sour mix instead of fresh lemon, and cola poured in by the can rather than floated. The AMF, the Grateful Dead, the Texas Tea and the Tokyo Iced Tea are all built on it.
Glassware: Highball Glass
Garnish: Lemon wheel
Ingredients
15ml
The IBA names Cointreau. At 40% ABV it is a full pour of spirit as well as the orange and part of the sweetness.
25ml
Squeezed the same day. The only acid in the glass, and the ingredient most often replaced by sour mix.
30ml
The IBA measure: one part sugar to one part water, by weight. It balances 25ml of lemon against five pours; take it to 20ml if you prefer the drink drier.
30ml
A 30ml float. The IBA says top with cola; measuring it keeps the drink from turning into a spirit and cola. Pour it gently over the surface.
Instructions
Squeeze the lemon juice the same day.
Fill a highball glass to the top with cubed ice.
Measure the vodka, tequila, white rum, gin and Cointreau over the ice.
Add the lemon juice and sugar syrup, and stir gently for a few seconds to mix.
Pour 30ml of cola slowly over the back of a bar spoon so it floats on the surface.
Garnish with a lemon wheel and serve at once with a straw.
Source: the IBA (Official IBA specification, cola measured at 30ml; method ours). Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Use a jigger for all five pours. The drink depends on no single spirit leading, and a generous pour of any one of them is the commonest way it goes wrong. It also pushes the glass well past its 3.0 units. Float the cola rather than topping up with it. Thirty millilitres poured gently over the back of a bar spoon gives the iced tea colour and a little cola on the first sips. A full top-up makes it a spirit and cola. If it tastes too sweet, adjust the syrup before anything else. The IBA’s 30ml is the reference; 20ml gives a drier drink with the same structure.
Behind the Long Island Iced Tea
Flavour Profile
The Origin
The origin is disputed. The most widely repeated account is Robert ‘Rosebud’ Butt’s: he says he created the drink in 1972 while working at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island, New York, as an entry in a bartenders’ competition built around triple sec.
Kingsport, Tennessee, has a rival claim. The city credits a local man, Charles ‘Old Man’ Bishop, with an earlier version from the 1920s, from a district of the town called Long Island. Both stories come from the people and places telling them. The recipe itself is settled: the IBA lists it among its official cocktails, and that specification is the one given here.
Why Five Spirits Work
Four of the pours are spirits with no sugar and one, the Cointreau, is a liqueur. At 15ml each, none of them leads. Vodka adds strength, gin a dry juniper edge, white rum a little roundness, tequila a green, peppery note, and Cointreau orange and sweetness.
That base needs a frame, and the lemon and syrup supply it. Twenty-five millilitres of lemon against 30ml of syrup is a sweet and sour balance, built like a long sour. Get either wrong and five spirits pull in five directions.
The Cola Float
The IBA says to top with cola. We measure it at 30ml and float it, because a short float gives the colour that names the drink without turning it into a spirit and cola. Poured gently over the back of a bar spoon, it sits on top, so the first sips carry the cola and the lemon comes through as the glass goes down.
The Long Island Family
The Long Island is the parent of a group of drinks that keep its base spirits and change the rest. The units below take the spirits and triple sec at 40% ABV, blue curaçao, Midori and peach schnapps at 20%, and Chambord at 16.5%.
The Long Island family
Long Island Iced Tea
- What changes
- The IBA specification: five 15ml pours, lemon, syrup, cola float
- Colour
- Amber
- UK units per glass
- 3.0
Texas Tea
- What changes
- Adds 15ml bourbon
- Colour
- Amber
- UK units per glass
- 3.6
AMF (Adios Motherfucker)
- What changes
- Blue curaçao for Cointreau, lemonade for cola
- Colour
- Blue
- UK units per glass
- 2.7
Grateful Dead
- What changes
- Chambord for cola, lime for lemon
- Colour
- Red-purple
- UK units per glass
- 3.4
Tokyo Iced Tea
- What changes
- Midori for cola, topped with lemonade
- Colour
- Green
- UK units per glass
- 3.6
Purple Rain
- What changes
- Chambord and lemon-lime soda for the lemon, syrup and cola
- Colour
- Purple
- UK units per glass
- 3.5
Boston Trash Can
- What changes
- No tequila or citrus; blue curaçao, peach schnapps and Red Bull
- Colour
- Blue to green
- UK units per glass
- 3.0
| Drink | What changes | Colour | UK units per glass |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Island Iced Tea | The IBA specification: five 15ml pours, lemon, syrup, cola float | Amber | 3.0 |
| Texas Tea | Adds 15ml bourbon | Amber | 3.6 |
| AMF (Adios Motherfucker) | Blue curaçao for Cointreau, lemonade for cola | Blue | 2.7 |
| Grateful Dead | Chambord for cola, lime for lemon | Red-purple | 3.4 |
| Tokyo Iced Tea | Midori for cola, topped with lemonade | Green | 3.6 |
| Purple Rain | Chambord and lemon-lime soda for the lemon, syrup and cola | Purple | 3.5 |
| Boston Trash Can | No tequila or citrus; blue curaçao, peach schnapps and Red Bull | Blue to green | 3.0 |
The full recipes: the Texas Tea, the AMF, the Grateful Dead, the Tokyo Iced Tea, the Purple Rain and the Boston Trash Can.
How Strong It Is
Five 15ml pours at 40% ABV are 30ml of pure alcohol, about 3.0 UK units. That is three pub singles of 25ml, or a little over two of 35ml, in one glass. The lemon, sugar and cola make it taste lighter than that. Count it as three drinks and keep water on the table.
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. Its legal minimum is 37.5% ABV, most bottles are 40%, and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Long Island Iced Tea?
Is there tea in a Long Island Iced Tea?
How strong is a Long Island Iced Tea?
Who invented the Long Island Iced Tea?
Why does mine taste like a cheap party drink?
Does the cola have to be a float?
Can I use triple sec instead of Cointreau?
What are the variations on a Long Island Iced Tea?
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Texas Iced Tea
A Texas Iced Tea, or Texas Tea, is a Long Island Iced Tea with bourbon added as a sixth pour. It takes 15ml each of vodka, gin, white rum, blanco tequila, triple sec and bourbon, 25ml fresh lemon juice and 30ml sugar syrup, built over ice in a highball and finished with a 30ml cola float. The bourbon is the only change. It adds vanilla and oak under the five Long Island pours and gives the drink more weight. It is also stronger. Six full-strength pours make about 3.6 UK units, more than three and a half 25ml pub singles, and the cola and lemon hide most of it. Measure the bourbon at 15ml like everything else; the name invites a heavy hand.
Adios Motherfucker
An AMF, short for Adios Motherfucker, is a Long Island Iced Tea turned blue. It takes 15ml each of vodka, gin, white rum, blanco tequila and blue curaçao, 25ml fresh lemon juice and 10ml sugar syrup, built over ice in a highball and topped with 60ml lemonade. Blue curaçao stands in for the Long Island’s Cointreau and lemonade for its cola, so the drink comes out bright blue instead of amber. It is strong. One glass carries about 2.7 UK units, close to three 25ml pub singles, and the lemon and lemonade hide most of it. Two things decide how it turns out. Measure every pour, because a heavy hand on any one bottle makes an AMF taste of that bottle. And use fresh lemon with clear lemonade: sour mix makes it sweet and flat, and cloudy lemonade turns it green.
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead is a Long Island Iced Tea with raspberry in place of cola. It takes 15ml each of vodka, gin, white rum, blanco tequila and triple sec, 22.5ml Chambord, 22.5ml fresh lime juice and 10ml sugar syrup, built over ice in a highball with no topper. Lime replaces the Long Island’s lemon, and the Chambord turns the drink a deep red-purple. With nothing long in the glass, it is denser than its parent: about 3.4 UK units, more than three 25ml pub singles, in a drink that tastes of berries and lime. Measure every pour, squeeze the lime the same day, and use Chambord or another raspberry liqueur made from fruit. The Chambord is the only flavour beyond the spirits and the lime, so whatever goes in is what the drink tastes of.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026