The Blue Long Island Iced Tea Recipe

The Story Behind The Blue Long Island Iced Tea

This lighter, fruitier version of a Long Island Iced Tea is an eye-catching adaptation of its notorious counterpart, swapping blue Curaçao in for triple sec for a pop of color.

Blue Curaçao is a dry orange liqueur that doesn’t taste any different from its orange-hued counterpart. Curaçao was created when the Dutch West India Trading Company took over the island of Curaçao in the 19th century, according to historian Albert Frederic Benjamin. The island was covered in native laraha oranges and bitter Seville oranges that Spanish explorers had planted during the Columbian Exchange. Bols claims to have been the first to create Curaçao liqueur, but it is more than likely it was the first to make blue Curaçao, adding blue coloring and selling the product as créme de ciel, or “cream of the sky.”

The Blue Long Island Iced Tea is a great cocktail to showcase such a unique but misconstrued ingredient, as it holds its own against the powerhouse flavors of vodka, rum, tequila, and gin. This variation also steers away from the original recipe by using a lighter soda instead of Coca-Cola to heighten its blue tone. Some recipes go with ginger ale or energy drinks, but this version opts for a lemon-lime soda.