AMF Vs Long Island: What Is The Difference Between The Drinks?

In the vast world of cocktails, there are some you sip (dry martinis), some you savor (anything with absinthe), and some so refreshing that you can downright gulp (a perfect yet rich mojito). And then there are the ones you choose when you want to get good and buzzed up, but don't have the patience to wait for the effects of several beers to take effect. Such boozy options include the Long Island Iced Tea (LIIT) and its fraternal twin, the AMF, which stands for Adios, (insert Samuel L. Jackson's favorite noun here).

Both drinks contain an obscene amount of the same types of liquor which include vodka, silver tequila, gin, and white rum, plus orange liqueur, sweet and sour, and a splash of soda. However, where the LIIT is colored and flavored with cola, the AMF opts for clear lemon-lime soda and turns to blue curaçao for its azure color. Both drinks might catapult you back to your college days or when you achieved your newly-legal drinking status, when the only options for your small budget were cocktails that were both strong and cheap. Indeed, the LIIT and the AMF are two drinks that practically pride themselves on using bottom-shelf, well liquor. In a surprising twist, using the cheapest types of liquor in these two drinks still makes cocktails that taste pretty decent.

If you're an introvert, or even the slightest bit prudish, you might have a hard time ordering an AMF in person. For your sake, the drink also goes by the names Blue Motorcycle and Walk Me Down. It is curiously bright, tropical, and cheerful looking in its presentation given the potency it packs. Bright, neon blue in color and garnished with lemons, limes, and maraschino cherries, the AMF sneaks up on you at first glance, making you think you've ordered a sugary delight. The sweet and sour mix and lemon lime soda give the drink a fizzy, sweet flavor that does a great job hiding just how strong it is, but rest assured, you'll probably feel the drink at work in your head and eyesight fairly quickly.

It seems the AMF first emerged in the 1980s along with other bright cocktails like the Sex on the Beach and Midori sour, but the AMF became particularly popular in the 2010 decade. It's typically served in a highball or hurricane glass, likely to comfortably fit all of the booze, but its size also accounts for the high alcohol content of the drink. As for the name, the moniker remains a mystery. Perhaps the first bartender to serve one mumbled the phrase under their breath, or it's what your brain says to your short term memories upon the initial sip. If you're not into sweet and sour mix, you can substitute with simple syrup and fresh lime juice, but the orange-flavored liqueur must be blue in hue, and the soda should be a lemon-lime flavor.

There are conflicting stories about when and where the Long Island Iced Tea originated. According to two popular theories, it was either founded during the Prohibition era in the Kingsport, Tennessee area called Long Island, or the drink was born out of Long Island, New York in the 1970s. The former is said to have been sweetened with maple syrup in addition to including whiskey, which likely gave the drink its iced tea resemblance. The New York version most closely resembles how the cocktail is made today, using cola to disguise the otherwise clear drink into looking exactly like a cold glass of iced tea. To be clear, there is no tea whatsoever in a LIIT, and it certainly doesn't taste like it either.

Like the AMF, the drink is surprisingly tasty despite the amount of alcohol in it. Typically, equal amounts of the gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and triple sec are combined with sweet and sour mix before the cola goes in. But you can also forego the premixed sweetener and use fresh lemon juice plus a bit of simple syrup or extra fine sugar to mimic the same flavor. The classic garnish is, of course, a slice of lemon, furthering its masquerade as a glass of exceptional sweet tea. Beware, its potency (as well as the AMF's) makes this drink sound alarm bells to bartenders.