Recipe:

1oz vodka
1 oz gin
1 oz light rum
1 oz blanco tequila
1 oz triple sec
1 oz fresh lemon juice
¾ oz simple syrups

Combine all ingredients except cola in a shaker and fill with ice.
Shake well and strain into a tall Collins glass with ice.
Top with cola and garnish with a lemon wedge.

History:

If there is one cocktail synonymous with aggressive drinking, it’s the Long Island Iced Tea. Love it or hate it (most of that hate comes from loving a few too many of them), the LIIT is a cocktail recognized the world over.

Created in the disco fueled ’70s by Robert “Rosebud” Butt, at the New York bar Oak Beach Inn, it contains a sampling of virtually every spirit found in a standard bar well with just enough sweeteners to help wash it down. While there is a varying story about its origin dating back to the ’20s, the cocktail only partially mirrors what we know and drink today (and regret drinking tomorrow).

Considering there is no actual tea in this recipe (even though there is virtually everything else) the cocktail gets its name from the color it derives from the combination of cola and the poor substitute for citrus that was popular at the time, sour mix. Not too many bars were focusing on fresh ingredients in those days, and you would have been hard pressed to find fresh lemon or lime juice at a disco.

Being able to deceive the masses into believing that their cocktail doesn’t taste like there is anything in it is an enormous feat, and though it might not be the most influential cocktail in any global sense, it sure has had an impact on almost every person that came of drinking age since the ’70s. If you have never had a Long island Iced Tea,  you’re doing it all wrong and should go back to the moment you turned 21 and start again.

History abridged from Thrillist article “8 Cocktails That Changed the World of Cocktails”