Battle Of Bragging Rights: Who Has The Best Long Island Iced Tea?

It's North vs. South once again, as Long Island is facing off against Kingsport, Tennessee to find out which locale gets the bragging rights to making the best Long Island Iced Tea.

The tussle started back in May when Kingsport started declaring that the Long Island was invented in Tennessee, and named after a small island (called Long Island) in the Holston River. As part of its new tourism campaign, the city's tourism officials say the drink was created by Charlie "Old Man" Bishop int he 1920s. Bishop was a well-known illegal liquor distributor who lived on the Kingsport Long Island.

Long Island restaurateur Butch Yamalli -- who owns, among other properties, Freeport's Hudson's on the Mile -- heard about Kingsport's claim, and took serious issue with it. He sent a letter to Kingsport declaring that Robert "Rosebud" Butt was the actual inventor of the drink, here on Long Island in 1972.

Yamalli's letter also challenged the Kingsport folks to a duel: rival bartenders will each craft their own Long Island iced teas, and taste-testers will sample them to decide which is best.

There will be two competitions, one on Long Island and one in Kingsport. The first will be on June 27 at 4 p.m. at Hudson's on the Mile. The second will be on July 13 at 2 p.m. in Kingsport.

The rules are simple:

• Each team will bring their best bartender to each contest.
• Each contest will have five blind taste testers: two provided by the host town, and three randomly selected from the audience.

The winner at each competition will get to participate in a flag-raising ceremony, and the loser will have to clean the winner's bar. In addition, the overall winner will win the "Best Long Island Iced Tea" championship belt, along with endless bragging rights.

So are you Team Long Island or Team Long Island? Does the Long Island Iced Tea belong to Long Island or Tennessee?

Photo: Ivan Mateev/Shutterstock