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Top-Shelf Tea

This is mixologist David Alan’s grownup version of that old college party favorite Long Island Iced Tea. By using premium spirits in small amounts, David creates a balanced drink that isn’t too sweet or too strong, a far cry from the frat boy rendition, where one drink could put you out for the night. David omits the standard sweet-and-sour mix and tops the cocktail with the traditional splash of cola. Incidentally, despite its name, the drink doesn’t contain tea, but when all the ingredients are mixed together it sure looks like it.

Recipe information

  • Yield

    makes 1 drink

Ingredients

1

/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) silver tequila

1

/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) white rum

1

/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) vodka

1

/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) Cointreau

1

/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) gin

1

ounce (2 tablespoons) freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 1 medium lemon)

1

/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) simple syrup (see Tip, page 191)

4

ounces (1/2 cup) cola soda

Lemon twist, for garnish

Need to make a substitution?

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Combine the tequila, rum, vodka, Cointreau, gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker filled three-quarters of the way with ice. Shake well and strain into a tall glass two-thirds filled with ice. Top with cola and a lemon twist and serve immediately.

  2. tip

    Step 2

    To avoid the overly sweet taste of high fructose corn syrup, use Boylan Cola or Mexican Coca-Cola, which still uses cane syrup as its sweetener.

  3. Step 3

    Use large ice cubes for drinks on the rocks. Big ice keeps the drink cold longer and takes longer to melt, which keeps the drink from becoming a diluted version of its former self before it is finished.

Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved. A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café.  Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances. Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.
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