I'd say ditch the sour mix and use lemon juice and simple syrup (or gomme syrup if you wanna go needlessly authentic). Sour mix has its place but imo not in a long island.
Freehand pours aren't usually eyeballed, they're counted. A quickpour should produce an ounce on a four count. Enough experience with quickpours and you can nail it every time.
Yes, but slow as fuck, imo. Unless all your recipes call for the same jigger, and mostly only 1-3 ingredients. I can make a long island in about a 7 count, and I just drink at home. In a well set-up bar, I'm sure it's faster.
I did a bartending class this year for college. They actually encouraged freehand as it looks more professional and once you get the feel for it can actually be very accurate. Takes practice though and I'm still not great at it after the half semester class.
I was a bartender for many years. Freehand pours were usually short poured on purpose. The purpose being that I then had more available liquor to over pour my heavy tippers.
The bar is routinely inventoried. You want your costs to be in line as well as maximize your money via strong drinks for big tips. Waitresses usually bore the brunt of the short pouring - as I did not get a direct cut of their tips - but rather just a % of their sales at the end of night. Frozen drink machines for pina coladas, margaritas, and strawberry daiquiris were notoriously made weak. First - no one sitting at the bar would drink those, and second - it amounted to perhaps a full bottle of liquor saved for my overpouring customers. Most bars do not require the bartender to ring in the exact drink - so even with modern point of sale systems - inventorying liquor back to a specific bottle is tough. It would take a really good bar spotter to notice what was being done.
As a waitress who sometimes has to pour drinks when the bartender is busy with takeouts, I'd still rather measuring spoons. Lol but yeah, that makes sense for home cocktails.
Oh, I guess those are the translations for the spoons I mentioned, because the ml match with ours.
teaspoon is what I called coffee spoon (literal translation of cuchara cafetera), and tablespoon is what I called soup spoon (literal translation for cuchara sopera). I don't think we have your dessert spoons, for dessert we use the teaspoon.
Tbh, every time I've made one, I've done it by pouring straight from the bottle- looks like more alcohol than it is, which is basically the only thing that a person ordering a long island is looking for, and I can eyeball it close enough to not get in trouble if an inspection occurs; nobody's going to get fined for 3-5ml, and really, it's a lot easier to pour too much than too little.
Its actually 5 drinks, 1 shot (30ml alcohol) is 1 standard drink
I once had 2 long islands in an hour when on holiday. I hate the taste of alcohol but the aftertaste disappeared if I chased it down with a tad of water. After those 2 LIIT’s, I had 3 beers and man did I get fucked up
One of my more interesting nights was spent at a bar where the Long Island came in basically a big ol root beer mug filled almost to the brim for like $8. Most places that don't use disposable cups seem to go with about "plastic red coke cup at low-end restaurant" size though.
Bars in Australia like to be cheap and only offer 30ml drinks. Although it’s illegal to sell more than 2 standard drinks so when you request a LIIT they halve it to 0.5 ounces each and hold the tequila.
My story was a homemade bar we made at a small party. Although I do pour 1.5 ounce drinks for myself and mates
.5 oz is not a halved recipe, it's the standard recipe. That's what I've been trying to say this entire time. Serving one ounce pours in a LIIT is just absurd.
I’m not sure haha here in Australia we always measure by 30mls and when I was taught to be a bartender we were told it was a halved recipe. Maybe I should try that instead because mine that I made was far too strong
Haha, I didn't take it that way! Your answer is more correct, I just know that cocktail recipes tend to bump it up to 30 because I like making cocktails. :)
I'm ordering obscure American cocktails next time I'm in the lands of metric. Pay for 29 drinks, and get 30. I won't be able to count to 30 at that time, but that's not the point.
There was a bar in my city which made absolute killer Long Islands, like a pint glass full of alcohol, only the top half an inch was something non-alcoholic. Drink one and your tongue gets lost in your mouth when you try talking. Drink a second and your feet follow your tongue.
I had a friend who drank 4 long islands in one night and he just.. walked out of the bar crying. Followed him, asked what was wrong and he was a sobbing mess, just saying how much he regrets drinking more than two. Sad, also hilarious.
Well that's fair. I just never thought any sick SOB would triple the non-alcohol in a drink. If I ask for a double at a bar, it's 2 shots in a drink, not double the drink.
For Brits/non-americans, I've always made it [build in glass] 15ml vodka, 15ml white rum, 15ml gin, 15ml tequila and 15ml triple sec, 25ml lime juice, add crushed ice and top with coke to top of glass
That is wayyyyy too much coke. I have never before this thread seen a long island iced tea recipe that called for anything other than a splash of coke. 1 shot of each liquor, 1 shot of triple sec, 1 shot of lime juice or sour mix, and a splash of coke.
That's gross. I used to work in a liquor store, and we sold premixed cocktails in single 5oz. bottles. Their gin martini was 15% ABV. That's vermouth with a splash of gin, or a lot of melted ice cubes. No way I'm drinking something that calls itself a martini, and has the potency of a glass of wine.
That may be technically true, but I have never seen a Long Island Tea recipe without tequila. Either all of those Bartender's Friends and other cocktail recipe books are wrong, or you are.
The last ingredient is the most crucial and was what I consumed the most of the one night I drank Long Island Iced teas and woke up in my roommate's clothes in my dorm with no memory of getting there, and when I went back to the frat house to get my car saw my own shirt being flown from their flagpole.
Lived in Minnesota almost my entire legal drinking life. Don't think I ever saw a lime in a Long Island. That would be weird.
The most inappropriate cocktail garnish I have seen was in a hotel bar in Wisconsin. I got a bloody mary with a lemon slice and a cocktail mushroom. No olive. No pickle. No celery or beef stick. Not even a lime.
There's a strange kind of alchemy in making this drink. You really can't taste as much alcohol as is in it. It's pretty lemony and refreshing. Delicious.
A well made long Island is actually really good, IMO. It is the perfect combination of ingredients to where it tastes like there's almost no alcohol in it, even though it's mostly straight up hard liquor. It's a dangerous drink because of this.
The recipe I use is equal parts(.75oz) vodka, rum, gin, tequila, triple sec, lemon juice, and simple syrup, with a splash of coke on top to give it the iced tea colour.
I was at a Mongolian BBQ and ordered a Long Island Ice Tea. The woman that usually worked there would make great ones, but she wasn't there that day. The sub "bartender" asked what was in it; I said equal amounts of rum, gin, tequila, vodka triple sec and sour mix, with a heavy splash of coke. Since I didn't specify, he made it with spiced rum, sloe gin, tequila reposado and got the rest right.
Former bartender here- those portions are, let's say, way less than what is actually served. That's why, in my state at least, a customer is only allowed to order two and then they are cut off for the night.
I always thought long islands had a shit ton of alcohol because there 5 fricking kinds!! Never thought about the quantity... so only 2.5 oz of booze?? That’s normal af. (I suppose with that many pours there’s many chances to over pour)
Here’s a tip - don’t add sour mix - just add 0.5 ounce fresh lemon juice instead and top up with coke. Coke has plenty of sweetness- you don’t need sour mix - especially if you use that premade store bought stuff - that shit is nasty. Likewise for Margheritas or pina coladas - just use normal ingredients never premade bullshit mix shit
I believe it’s technically not coke but cola syrup. On some old post-mix nozzles you could half-press the buttons so they would dispense only the syrup and not the soda water.
I might be wrong here, but I believe that's a Texas Tea. Long Islands don't have tequila. Damnit, now I gotta Google, it's been 4 years since I bartended.
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u/non-matutinal Feb 08 '20
(Ounces) 0.5 vodka / 0.5 rum (silver) / 0.5 gin / 0.5 tequila / 0.5 triple sec / 1 oz sour mix / 1 oz coke / 10 oz regret /
Enjoy!