'Bless Their Heart': Tennessee town claims origin of Long Island Iced Tea

Fightin' words will culminate in a face-to-face booze battle between Kingsport, Tennessee and Long Island, New York.

At stake? Whoever makes the best Long Island Iced Tea claims the rights to its origin.

Gauntlet thrown

Hudson's on the Mile owner Butch Yamali issued the challenge, which he calls "The Battle of the Tea," after learning Kingsport claimed the drink was created there.

Hudson's is located on Long Island's "Nautical Mile." New Yorkers have claimed the cocktail's invention since the '70s, Yamali said.

“To say the Long Island Iced Tea came from Tennessee is like saying you go hula dancing in Alaska,” Yamali said. 

A Long Island Iced Tea is typically made with vodka, white rum, gin, tequila, triple sec and some combination of either coke and lemon or sweet and sour mix.

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Kingsport accepted the challenge on Friday, said Visit Kingsport marketing manager Amy Margaret McColl.

"But we're happy to have y'all, even though you're laying claim to what's ours — and them's fightin' words," Visit Kingsport Executive Director Jud Teague wrote in a rebuttal letter.

How will the contest work?

Delegates from both cities will craft cocktails for a panel of judges. Judges will wear blindfolds and select the best version.

Details, including a date and location, are still being determined. There may even be a contest both in Kingsport and Long Island. 

Yamali proposed the loser would clean the winners' bar and bathrooms, and fly the other state's flag above their bar.

"Not since the Civil War has the South tried to take over our territory," Yamali said in the letter.

'Bless Their Heart': Kingsport lays claim

The battle began when Visit Kingsport released a video claiming the famed and potent drink was invented in the northeastern Tennessee town. 

In the old-time video, Kingsport "resident" Ransom Bishop claimed his daddy, Charlie "Old Man" Bishop, whipped up the beginnings of the drink during Prohibition. Ransom put his own spin on the drink in the 1940s.

"We know there are some folks up in the North trying to take claim, but bless their heart," Ransom said. "My daddy was making his special recipe 50 years before they even thought about it."

Their special recipe for the beverage substitutes whiskey for triple sec and adds maple syrup and lime juice.

Long Islanders: Stick to your whiskey

The people of Freeport, New York, are not having it. 

“This is a declaration of war; it’s more than a challenge,” Yamali said.

"We on Long Island celebrate our beaches, our accents, and, most of all, our booze," Yamali wrote. "An insult against one is an insult to all!"

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According to Long Islanders, the drink was invented in 1972 by "Rosebud" Butt, a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn in the Hamptons. 

"They should stick to their Jack Daniel's," Yamali said of Tennesseans.

The Nautical Mile in Long Island serves over 1 million Long Island Iced Teas each year.