Entertainment Swindon

When was the last time you went out and had a real cocktail? I don’t mean one of those £10 Cocktail Pitchers from Wetherspoons, with just a teaspoon of tequila! I mean a sophisticated, artisan craft cocktail!

There is something to be said about having a euphoric, magical potion made from a trained mixologist at a cocktail bar like The Vault in Old Town. Yes they maybe a little more pricier, but you will be getting alcohol in your cocktail, and one that will have your taste buds mesmerised!

In a recent article in the iconic Esquire magazine, they called the Long Island Ice Tea, The Worlds Greatest Cocktail! Hmmmm…. Are they right? And if they are, What makes this particular cocktail the worlds greatest? It’s never really been one that even pops into my top ten, and I am one of those that goes out and hits the cocktail list throughout the night. I’m not a beer drinker… For me, its cider, alcopops and cocktails for me, I guess its my sweet tooth to blame.

Once seen as probably a posh party, snobby choice of cocktail, today it’s a big hit for the College crowd in the US due to its high alcohol content. A drink to hit the bars running with and get drunk quick. Here, in the UK, to me it just seemed like a cocktail that although always at the top of any cocktail menu, has just been mothballed back the the 80s. So how is this cocktail now being called the worlds greatest?

By the late 1970s, the Long Island Ice Tea was everywhere around Long Island, New York, and by the 1980s, the tall glass cocktail was Long Islands gift to the world.

The Long Island Ice Tea, for anyone that has never had one, has no actual tea in it, the story goes, the cocktail was born in the 70s on Long Island, where a bartender called Robert “Rosebud” Butt at an Outpost of the Oak Beach Inn, at the time a quartet of Infamous nightclubs, legendary throughout Long Island and said to have inspired aspects of the movie Goodfellas won a won a cocktail-creating contest sponsored by a triple sec company. With a mix of white liquors, a half shot of each poured into a glass, a splash of coke and a slice of lemon, the Long Island Ice Tea was born, and became an instant hit!

But I ask again, why should the Long Island Ice Tea be crowned Worlds Greatest Cocktail? The random orgy of spirits with that splash of coke, with its reputation of being a glass of pure ethanol due to its high alcohol content, I can think of many more, that not only taste amazing, but also actually look a bit like a work of art in a glass… Also, I’d go as far as saying, if I walked into a bar and asked 50 random people if they have ever had a Long Island Ice Tea, most would say never, in fact I’d say if I got 5 people saying yes, I’d be surprised! But the kids are drinking this concoction! And when I ask why, it seems a cheap way to get drunk, putting as much alcohol in a glass as possible.

The only way to really see if Esquire are right to say the Long Island Ice Tea is the greatest cocktail in the world is to actually have one or two, seeing as I cant remember when I last ever had one and can’t event remember what one even tastes like, so for scientific purposes, I am off to try the Long Island Ice Tea in one or two places around town, ok, three or four… ok, ok, who am I kidding! Im going to have quite a few, obviously for scientific purposes though!

I’m going to get plenty of eye rolls from bar tenders in real cocktail bars, but I’m happy to be judged in the name of science! Yeh, in Wetherspoons, its just another cheap drink on the menu that is down with the kids, and the minimum wage kid behind the bar paying their way through education has about as much knowledge of what actually makes a real Long Island Ice Tea or any other cocktails as the person ordering it at the bar, who smiles as they are passed the Wetherspoons abomination thats been made with some sour mi, instead of real lemon juice and watered down to fit the profit margin required by the chain.

If this is truly wanting the crown for being the worlds most popular cocktail, then at least drink at an establishment that makes this title worthy and give it the ingreadients this highball cocktail deserves!

Double the triple sec, add two ounces of cola to the cocktail instead of a splash, and pour a decent vodka in the glass, one that you would not mind drinking neat! Believe me! A good vodka can be drunk neat, without scrunching up your face!

Now go raise a glass to the Long Island Ice Tea!