And so, gentle readers, after five years of writing about cocktails we come to the one we have always tried to avoid. The Long Island Iced Tea. Why? Because it is so seditiously powerful, the one after which you will be incapable of anything else. Tasting your food . Engaging in serious conversation about Natural Philosophy or the Liberal Arts. Or even asking the waiter the way to the John. And believe us, once you have scanned the recipe(see below, see link) you will see why.
According to that excellent website The Cocktail Society, the Long Island Iced Tea evolved in te United States as a way to conceal the drinking of illicit hootch during Prohibition. “Make it look like Iced Tea,” was the rationale, “the Feds will never spot it for a ringer”. The Society gives a recipe, so we won’t cut across their know-how. But merely to list the ingredients from our own favourite recipe will demonstrate the potential head splitting power of this famous drink. They include 5 alcoholic ingredients; gin, vodka, white rum, tequila and Cointreau. Toppers up include ice, lemon juice and sugar syrup and above all cola, which gives it that iced tea look. And as sharper eyed readers will have already noted, there is no tea in it. Because that’s the whole point
As the Society observes , some smaller cocktails such as martinis may come with a higher alcohol content. But its the sheer volume of the LIIT which enables it to deliver such an enormous punch. And so we say: enjoy, but with caution. Do not attempt to i operate heavy machinery, drive nor attempt to make love any time after, as the results will be inevitably tragic. We had one at lunch yesterday and we are still recovering. Be glad we got this far.
[1]https://cocktail-society.com/recipes/long-island-iced-tea/
Learning, Science and Society 