There is an IBA Official Cocktail that I was fairly certain I wouldn’t cover. Because it’s awful.

But these are extraordinary times. So in the week of what is predicted to be an inexplicably tight US election, we need a stiff drink.

Enter the Long Island Iced Tea.

Basically take everything in your drinks cabinet – tequila, vodka, rum, gin (but don’t waste any of your good stuff) – put it in a long glass with a shot of Coca-Cola to give it its tea-like hue and there you have it.

Then some people like to drink it.

Go figure.

I have lifted this photo from the Instagram account of a couple of loyal Muddlers and am advised that they enjoyed it.

Let’s be honest though, any drink on holidays is a good drink . Tom Cruise could saunter on up in his tight white pants and serve us all a round of Red Eyes on holidays and we’d down them with gusto.

The LIIT was invented in 1972 in a bar on Long Island, New York.

Long Island contains, among other counties, the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. It was the setting for The Great Gatsby, the home of George Constanza and Billy Joel, and was the setting for horror shows like The Amityville Horror and Everybody Loves Raymond.

It’s had a significant impact on State and National politics in the past and while traditionally Republican, has been delivering Democratic majorities over the past decade.

Let’s hope it continues that trend this week.

The town of Babylon on Long Island is now the subject of an FBI investigation into a possible serial killer (after the search for a missing woman turned up another – wait for it – 10 bodies by the highway in 2010/11).

More cheerfully, the same part of Long Island was also the home of the Oak Beach Inn, closed in 1999 and demolished in 2003. This was where a bartender who goes by the handle Rosebud invented the Long Island Iced Tea.

Rosebud’s name is actually Robert Butt which is ironic given the taste of his signature cocktail created for a competition for cocktails containing triple sec – Cointreau or otherwise which we profiled HERE.

There are better examples of triple sec cocktails.

But today we find ourselves contemplating an IBA “Contemporary Classic” – the Long Island Ice Tea. You’ll note that it isn’t “Iced Tea” according to the IBA. Every other reference to it I can find adds the D, including Bob Butt the inventor.

Drink one and you won’t give a rat’s darse.

It has a significantly higher alcohol content (22%) than most other cocktails, so if you want to drink to forget – say on November 9 and every day for the next four years – it is just the ticket.

This is the drink’s most frequent reference in popular culture and seemingly its primary selling point

Like when narcissist Lorelei Gilmore downed a couple at her hen’s night before she was due to marry poor mild-mannered Max in series 2 and instead did some drunk dialing to an ex and brought the engagement to an end. I can’t judge her for that, but I can judge her for what she chooses to drink.

And I will.

The Gilmore Girls ran almost entirely during the George W Bush years, this witty and well-written (certainly at the beginning) series, giving us hope that even if the worst happens this week and Trump is elected (shudder), there may be some good things that can still happen in the world.

Here’s two.

Weather permitting, down here in Australia where we don’t get to vote for the USA President but will all be deeply impacted by the result, we’ll at least get to appreciate the Super-Moon of the Century on Monday November 14^th.

A super-moon is a full moon when the moon is at its closest point in its orbit so it will appear bigger and brighter than at any time in the past 70 years.

Read more about it HERE – this photo from the Sydney Morning Herald shows the last Sydney super-moon in 2014 and this one is due to be BETTER.

It won’t be like this again until late 2034 so let’s hope for clear skies.

Come what may with clouds and elections, we have The Gilmore Girls revival to look forward to on Netflix from the end of November (sadly without Richard Gilmore, played by the late Edward Herrmann who we saw in last week’s Halloween post as our second mild-mannered Max of this LIIT Special Edition  – this M-M Max just happened to be head vampire in The Lost Boys showing that still Maxes run deep).

I’m going to pair my Gilmore Girls viewing with wine, but if you want to drink yourself into oblivion, whipping yourself up a couple of Long Island Iced Teas is at least on-theme and may allow you to go back in time to October 2000 when the first episode aired and we had a Clinton in the Oval Office.

Let’s drink and hope for symmetry.

Cheers!

PS On a more sombre note, Shake, Stir, Muddle received the sad news this week of the passing of a loyal and enthusiastic Muddler. Vale Annie.