Whether you're the freshman on the hall who can't even figure out what goes into a gin and tonic, or a senior who still doesn't know exactly what went into that last, unfortunate shot at your friend's 21st, this is the column for you. This is your education. This is your drink of the week.
long island iced tea
1 oz. vodka
1 oz. tequila
1 oz. rum
1 oz. gin
1 oz. triple sec
splash sweet and sour mix
cola to fill
For as popular a drink as the Long Island Iced Tea is, it's baffling how few people actually know what's in it. From sorority girls ("It just gets you really drunk") to my housemate ("It's just, like, a bunch of shit, isn't it?"), the drink's contents are often a mystery to the 18-25 age demographic. The intrigue, however, doesn't stop there. Even more baffling is the taste, which manages somehow to mask the drink's obscene amount and diverse types of alcohol while going down like a smooth glass of straight up iced tea. Most shocking of all, despite the cocktail's name and taste, there isn't even iced tea in it. Yeah. Trippy. We know.
Invented at some undetermined point in the 1970s in, you guessed it, Long Island, the drink's recipe lends credibility to the argument that if you throw enough crap together in the same pot and stir, something good is bound to come out. Mixing equal parts gin, vodka, rum, tequila and the optional triple sec, the concoction somehow comes out right after a splash of sour mix and cola to fill. One of the quickest ways to falling down on the dance floor - personal experience, don't ask - this stirred drink is sometimes garnished with a lemon. Clocking in at two and a half times the alcoholic content of your standard Rum and Coke, don't be surprised when the spins come sooner than expected. At least that's one mystery solved.
- Gabriel Crane
