A glass of Texas Tea looks like iced tea on the porch, but the color is doing all the work. There’s no actual tea anywhere in the recipe. It’s six liquors, fresh lemon, a little simple syrup, and a splash of cola.
If this is your first time making it, the main worry might be whether six liquors in one glass will taste like the bottom of your cabinet. It doesn’t, it tastes strong but smooth and warm. The key is measuring the alcohol carefully and pouring the cola last. I’ll cover both below.
Read This First
The cola is a finishing splash, not the body of the drink. It’s one ounce per glass, added last. If you eyeball it or top up the glass the way you would a rum and coke, the spirits disappear and you have flat sweet soda with a lemon wedge.
Make this drink at least once, exactly as written, before you start adjusting it. Strong drinks like Texas tea have less room for guesswork.
Ingredient Notes
Gold rum, not spiced: Spiced rum sits right next to gold rum on the shelf, and the bottles look almost identical. Spiced rum will wreck this drink. The cinnamon and vanilla in it fight the lemon and the cocktail ends up tasting like dessert. Bacardi Gold or any plain gold rum works.
Bourbon: This one matters more than people think. Soft, easy-drinking bourbons like Maker’s Mark, Larceny, or Weller are the safest pick if you have never made this before. Sharper bourbons work too, but they add more bite.
Cola: Both Pepsi and Coke work. However, skip diet versions; they taste metallic next to the alcohol.
Orange liqueur: The three options on most shelves are triple sec, Cointreau, and Grand Marnier, and they are not the same drink in a different bottle. If I have it, I use Cointreau because it tastes like real orange. Triple sec is my reliable backup. I don’t recommend Grand Marnier. ‘
The orange liqueur is structural, not a flavor you pick out. It rounds the lemon and adds a layer of sweetness.
If you want to actually taste orange in the finished drink, use Cointreau instead of Triple Sec and increase the amount to 1½ ounces. The trade-off is a slightly sweeter and slightly less spirit-forward drink.
Don’t Miss This Step
Shake everything except the cola hard over ice for 12 to 15 seconds, strain into a glass packed with fresh ice, THEN pour the cola on top. Shaking with cola flattens the cola in second.
Cold spirits over fresh ice with the cola added last is what gives you the amber gradient. Get the order wrong and you have a glass of sweet, flat liquor.
The Finished Drink
In the glass, the finished cocktail has a layered amber gradient: darker near the bottom where the cola sinks, lighter near the top where the spirits and lemon float above it. If your drink is uniformly dark coffee-colored, you used too much cola. If it is uniformly pale, not enough.
Make Ahead For The Party
That morning, mix the gin, vodka, tequila, rum, bourbon, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and lemon juice in a sealed jar. No ice, no cola. Refrigerate.
When guests arrive:
- Fill each glass with fresh ice.
- Pour a generous ½ cup of the cold mix into each glass (about 4½ ounces).
- Top each drink with 1 ounce of cola, poured last.
A 12-ounce can of cola covers about 12 drinks at this ratio. Pour the cola the moment you hand the drink over, not before. It goes flat in about 10 minutes once it touches ice.
“It does give you an initial burn then the warmth kicks in.”
A properly-shaken Texas Tea should hit as an initial burn followed by a slower warmth. If you only feel the burn and no follow-through, you didn’t shake it long enough. Shak it for another 8 to 10 seconds, then taste again.
If you like the bold side of Texas Tea, the Paralyzer is in the same family.
A note on this recipe: I first published this Texas Tea recipe in September 2022. The ratios in the recipe card have not changed since then because they work. I rewrote the body of this post in May 2026 to address the questions readers that the original post did not cover: which bourbon actually matters for smoothness, why the cola goes in last, what the orange liqueur is and is not doing in the drink, and how to scale this for a party without flattening the cola.
For another summer drink with alcohol, try my peach schnapps cocktail.
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Texas Tea Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ounce dry gin
- 1 ounce vodka
- 1 ounce gold tequila
- 1 ounce gold rum
- 1 ounce bourbon whisky
- 1 ounce orange liqueur
- 1 ounce simple syrup
- 2 ounces fresh-squeezed lemon juice, approx. 2 small lemons
- 2 ounces cola
Garnish
- lemon wedge and ice
Instructions
- Add ice to a cocktail shaker (or a large mason jar with a lid) until it's about half full.
- Pour in the gin, vodka, gold tequila, gold rum, bourbon, orange liqueur, simple syrup, and lemon juice.
- Seal the shaker and shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds, until the outside is too cold to grip comfortably.
- Set out two lowball glasses. Hook a lemon wedge on the rim of each, then fill each glass three-quarters full with fresh ice.
- Strain the cocktail evenly between the two glasses.
- Top each drink with 1 ounce of cola, poured last.
Notes
- I highly suggest that you do not use liquors that are bottom shelf, and that you use individual liquors that you would enjoy drinking on their own. Due to the nature of this recipe, it is a very strong drink and you want it to be as smooth as possible. I do not feel that top shelf, or very expensive, brands need to be used, but I do think that the quality does make a difference.
- This recipe makes two drinks. If you are serving a crowd, you can double or triple the recipe to make a pitcher for sharing.
- Add a fancy straw to your glass to make your drink extra fun.
Nutrition
Comments
Mel says
Definitely a summer party drink!
Coll says
Awesome minus the Pepsi…I am a Coca-cola girl 🍹