Bartenders are classing it up with mezcal, frozen lemonade, homemade cola, and herbaceous syrups.
Eric Sze is a glorify chef and the owner of two wildly popular Tawinese eating house in New York City . But even he can occasionally be found saddle up to a bar not just tope , butchugging , a swallow that ’s synonymous with hazy dark out : the Long Island Iced Tea .
Sze has been known to indulge in a plot he calls “ The LIIT Challenge , ” in which whoever is the last to cease their Long Island Iced Tea is forced to order another . And if that sounds like a deranged college drunkenness biz , well , that ’s because it was . Sze has been enjoying this decidedly low - hilltop drink since his former days with alcohol and continued do it it into adulthood , so when he tapped Morgan Robison as the beverage director for his late speculation , Wenwen , having a Long Island Iced Tea on the menu was the only requirement .
Robison knew he wanted to ameliorate upon the now - classical combination of vodka , gin , rummy , tequila , orange liqueur like Triple Sec or Cointreau , and cola to play off the caliber of dishes coming out of thekitchen at Wenwen — and he ’s one of several bartenders around the rural area trying to wrench this long - derided drunkenness reserved for college yobo into a legitimate ordination .
The Shyboy 4XL at Wenwen|Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
“ For the most part , [ the Long Island Iced Tea ] is for masses who are here to drink and think , ‘ This is the immobile way to get to where I ’m going , ’ ” he says of the cocktail ’s rowdy report . “ We wanted to change it so you could get to that degree , but it ’s also going to be a really tasty drink and you ’re going to have a dependable journey on the fashion there . ”
The restaurant ’s loop of the drink is called The Shyboy and guests can also order The Shyboy 4XL , an option that leans into the drink ’s jovial repute with a 38 - ounce goblet and a flaming lime and hibiscus flowers floating on top . In the cocktail , Robison swaps mezcal for the original recipe ’s tequila and add up Amaro Montenegro instead of orange liqueur . Those two change help incorporate smokey and herbaceous flavour that leave in a more complex beverage , but the master reason Robison read his variation is “ exponentially full ” than the prototype is thanks to one ingredient : lime .
“ In the original , you have all of this liquor , plus sweetness from the orange liqueur and Coke , but you do n’t have anything to balance it out , ” Robison say . “ So if you add together a lilliputian bit of acid , it helps lash out it all out . ”
The Shyboy and The Shyboy 4XL at Wenwen|Photo by Cole Saladino for Thrillist
In NYC , this once flout - at drink has beenpopping upon menu at other top - pass restaurants . AtBonnie ’s , a buzzy Cantonese restaurant that ’s currentlyone of the problematical reservationsto get in town , you ’ll find an outsized vintage - style teapot fill with iced dearest lemon tea , cognac , and Mexican Coca - Cola along with the required tequila , gin , vodka , and rummy . Danny Meyer ’s Southern - style legal profession , Porchlight , use homemade cola , citrous fruit , and bitters to promote its draught interpretation of the boozing . And over the winter , Teddy ’s Barserved a hot Long Island Iced Tea with black tea syrup in place of Coke that worked against all betting odds .
These all rest a short stuffy to theoriginal recipe , but at other saloon around the country , beverage music director are take the basics and running with it to craft drinks loosely inspire by the LIIT . There ’s craft cocktail barThe Roosevelt Roomin Austin , which has an entire category dedicated to popular boozing of the later 20th century , aka what it dubs the “ Dark Ages . ” The bar ’s version of a Long Island include cantala sap syrup , which imparts flavors of molasses and clavus .
Nostalgia is also at the affection of Boston ’s popular tropical - style cocktail bar , Shore Leave , where beverage film director Hannah Moore created a summer carte du jour add-on with memory - inducing fixed lemonade , a bunch of booze , and a splattering of the cola that makes this drink instantly recognizable .
Long Island Iced Tea at The Roosevelt Room|The Roosevelt Room
Her version , the Rhode Island Iced Tea , is a nod to Del ’s Lemonade , a must - have drink of the summertime in the nearbyNew England country . The theme to make a bibulous frozen lemonade came first , but when pulling spirits from behind the barroom that she thought would impart out the oral cavity - puckering citrus savor of the lemonade , she had a motley gang of bottles that felt reminiscent of the myriad spirit used to make the Long Island version .
The crapulence consists of frozen lemonade , gin , pisco , Jamaican rummy , and curaçao , all mixed together and poured into a pearl diver glass atop a plash of colon . “ I liked the theme of flipping it on its head word , ” Moore says . “ Every time you make a Long Island , you put a splash of Coke on top but we flip out it and float the lemonade on the Coke . ”
The Long Island Iced Tea , in all its creative form , may be appearing on a passel more menus late , but the movement of embracing this debaucherous swallow ishardly unexampled . The cocktail seemingly go in and out of popularity every few class , andHalcyon , an all - twenty-four hours coffee bar and bar with four locations in Texas , has had a translation on the carte for 20 long time : the Long Island Iced Coffee .
The Rhode Island Iced Tea at Shore Leave|Photo courtesy of Shore Leave
Lacey Aleman , Halcyon ’s operating mate , says the drunken coffee drink occur from a desire to recreate foregone cocktails and better upon them using the shop ’s java programme . The drink contains vodka , gin , rummy , chocolate liqueur , hazelnut liqueur , cold brew , and a dab of Baileys Irish Cream — and there ’s a limit of two per client , another planetary house that this is a version designed for creditworthy kinsfolk that are elbow room beyond their fake - ID days .
Aleman says when she start as a bartender in the late ’ XC , the drink ’s poor reputation also came from the fact that it was made using the cheapest well liquor a bar had on hand . “ It ’s always been the thing 21 - class - olds are asking for , ” she says .
That ’s what Aleman likes so much about the ice coffee interlingual rendition help in her shops . You do n’t have to go on a bender to revisit the slowly - imbibition feeling you ’ve loved before . “ multitude are excited to revisit the nostalgia of the cheap drink they remember from their 20 , ” Aleman enounce . “ This fourth dimension with a much more elevated edition . ”
