BURST(NEXSTAR) — If you’re familiar with a Long Island iced tea, you may be aware of a common misconception: there is no tea, iced or otherwise, in the cocktail. That may not be the only incorrect assumption made about the cocktail.
The Long Island iced tea is one of more than 100 official cocktails recognized by the International Bartenders Association. The IBA’s recipe calls for 15 mL each of vodka, tequila, white rum, gin, and Cointreau (orange-flavored triple sec), mixed with 25 mL of lemon juice, 30 mL of simple syrup, and a topping of cola in a highball glass with ice.
Variations can include adding whiskey (known as a Texas tea), swapping the cola for pineapple juice (Hawaiian iced tea), and using Tennessee whiskey in place of the gin while leaving out the tequila (Tennessee iced tea), among others.
While a Tennessee iteration may exist, some may argue the Long Island ice tea is already a Tennessee concoction.
A recipe for the Long Island iced tea was indeed created on Long Island, New York. Robert “Rosebud” Butt is credited for mixing the drink while working as a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island in the 1970s.
In a 2013 interview, Butt explained that the inn, locally known as the OBI, where he was a bartender was having a contest.
“They put a bottle of triple sec on the bar and they asked us to make something out of it,” he said. The recipe Butt came up with included “about a shot” of vodka, gin, rum, tequila, and triple sec poured over ice with “a little bit of sour mix” and “a little Coke, just to make the color.”
Within a few years, the Long Island iced tea became a popular cocktail, even outside of the OBI.
“I invented it for fun. It was part of my job, and I think I always did my job well. This says I did my job well at the time,” he shared.
However, as with many creations, there are other origin stories.
Some 675 miles away, the city of Kingsport, Tennessee, claims that one of its own is the rightful creator of the Long Island iced tea.
Sandwiched between two forks of the Holston River is Kingsport’s Long Island, a four-mile stretch now complete with baseball diamonds, a chemical company, and substations. More than 200 years ago, it served as an important site for the Cherokee Indians, colonial pioneers, and early settlers of the region,
Later on, historians say it supported “characters and bootlegging activities,” Nexstar’s WJHL previously reported. That includes Charles Bishop, better known as “Old Man Bishop,” who called the island home during the 1920s.
At the height of prohibition, Bishop served as an illegal liquor distiller. He has long been credited for using the perks of his job to create a cocktail with rum, vodka, whiskey, gin, tequila, and a bit of maple syrup. Roughly two decades later, it’s said that Bishop’s son, a still operator named Ransom, tweaked his old man’s recipe to add lemon, lime, and cola. The drink would be known as the Long Island iced tea, a nod to the slit of land Old Man Bishop called home.
The disdain between bartenders in both Long Island areas has even culminated to threats of legal action. In 2019, judges voted 3-2 in favor of a Long Island iced tea mixed by Kingsport bartenders over one made by New York bartenders. As WJHL reported at the time, the battle - intended as a friendly matchup after Kingsport declared itself the home of the Long Island iced tea - was held at a neutral site, a bar in Maryland.
After its loss, the New York bar involved claimed the competition was rigged. It accused Kingsport’s tourism entity of using judges with ties to the Tennessee city and not blindfolding them.
Nonetheless, Kingsport stands by its claims of being the Long Island iced tea capital of the world. It even had a mural of the cocktail put up in its downtown in 2023.
Long Island, New York, may have another dog in the fight, though.
A report from local news outlet Newsday, shared by Butt on his website, acknowledged two additional genesis tales for the Long Island iced tea. Both are connected to New York’s island: one credits Prohibition-era bartenders with adding cola to cocktails to disguise the alcohol while the other links the drink’s start to “bored Long Island homemakers” pretending to drink iced teas that were instead “strange combinations of alcohol.”
There’s also the IBA recipe, which more closely matches Butt’s recipe than Old Man Bishop’s. The official recipe and Butt’s call for vodka, gin, tequila, rum, a triple sec option, and cola. Bishop’s, meanwhile, uses whiskey instead of triple sec, in addition to the dash of maple syrup.
Despite its varieties, the Long Island iced tea has remained a popular cocktail. An April 2024 report from Forbes, citing NielsenIQ Data, listed it as the seventh-most popular cocktail in the U.S.