Long Island Ice Tea questions.... I don't really like the sweet & sour mix?

Question

I liked the drink, but I'm not fond of the overly tart/sour taste. I guess it's supposed to mimic lemons or something but I don't even like lemons in my regular tea.

Is there a way to get around this issue? More of a regular tea taste, or sweet tea taste?

I'm not sure if it's the mix or the triple sec that's the problem.....

A friend said there's a Long Island Iced Tea with something in it that makes it blue, and sweeter. Anyone know about this?

I would prefer recipes/ideas that you tried yourself or know taste good rather than speculation, but I'm open to anything.

Answer 1

Phillips has a premixed Long Island Tea mix that I drink quite often. They suggest just using coke added to it.  If you don't like the tartness, just ask the bartender to put in more sprite vs using sprite/sour combo. And eliminate the lemon. The triple sec is actually a sweet taste.

If you like the sort of taste but not the sour, try a Hawiian Long Island Tea. It is made with orange juice and pineapple juice and splash of grenadine. Alot sweeter with the perfect punch!!

The blue tea your friend is speaking of is made with blue curaco. Can't remember the name off top of my head but I don't care for it.

The Ground Round has tea night where they have a list of like 8-10 different flavors from Long Island to Long Beach to a grape tasting one.  If there is one in your area, I recommend trying the diff ones.

Answer 2

Try McGuinness Long Island Iced Tea, and follow the recipie on back:

1 1/2 ounces of mix, 2-3ounces of bar lime or frozen limeonaid (half the required water to make it).  Fill the glass with ice and mixture and add diet or regular cola to fill up the glass.  We always use Bar Lime to make this at the bar I work at, but frozen Limeade is really good to.

Answer 3

Well, that overly sour/tart taste could be because of the brand of sweet and sour mix that was used.  It can be overwhealmingly lemony, especially with the Daily's brand.  The best and most common brand to use is Mr. and Mrs. T's brand.  It's pretty regular tasting and not really even that lemony.  

The reason why sweet and sour mix is used is not only for the flavor, but for the decoration.  Sweet and sour mix has something called "bar foam" inside of it, which gives drinks shaken with the mix in it a cool foam on top that makes the drink look more professional and all that jazz.

You could definitely get rid of the triple sec if you wanted it to be less sweet.  But triple sec is flavored of ORANGES, not lemons.  So it wont make the lemony taste go away.  Only removing the sour mix will make the lemony taste go away.

The closest thing to a Long Island Iced Tea without sweet and sour mix, is the New Orleans Iced Tea....

New Orleans Iced Tea:

Vodka

Gin

Rum

Tequila

Triple Sec

ORANGE JUICE (also gives a nice foam on top)

Coke

That's just a Long Island with the sweet and sour swapped out for o.j,

The tea drink that is blue and sweet is made with blue Curacao, which has the EXACT same flavor as Triple Sec because it's the exact same thing, orange flavored liqueur (not liquor, it's liqueur, because of it's sugar content...) but it's just bright blue.  The drink that replaces the triple sec with blue Curacao is called either Electric Lemonaide or Blue Motorcycle or Miami Ice depending on who you ask.  Except in that drink, you replace coke with sprite and triple sec with blue Curacao.

But here's a few more Tea variations to get you through the night!  ;-)

California Iced Tea aka Long Beach Iced Tea

Vodka

Gin

Rum

Tequila

Triple Sec

Cranberry Juice

California Beach Party:

Vodka

Rum

Gin

Triple Sec

Grand Mariner (same thing as triple sec, but higher quality and better tasting, but the same orange concept...)

Sour mix

7-up

Grenadine (the grenadine will cut that lemony flavor but don't overdo it)

Mongolian Motherfuccccer:

Vodka

Gin

RUm

Tequila

Triple Sec

Southern Comfort

Amaretto

Blackberry Brandy

Cranberry juice

OJ

Pineapple Juice

Sweet and sour mix.

Honestly, you can put whatever you want in the drink and top it off with cran, oj and pineapple and nobody will ever know the difference.  There's just too much stuff in there.

I have about ten thousand drink recipies in my head and in books, so you can e-mail me if you'd like some cool drinks.  I just don't know what to put down here right now because those are most of the teas I can think of.

Answer 4

The first Long Island Tea I had was a mild, refreshing, summery tea that I thought was very delicious. Little did I know there is more than one way to make Long Island Tea. I ordered one at a different place. First, the waitress raised her eyebrows in a way that suggested she was surprised that someone like me would order a Long Island Tea. Then, the drink was served. I nearly passed out with the first sip. I'll never have another one again without asking the staff exactly what their recipe is.