Kingsport relaunches Long Island Iced Tea Trail

KINGSPORT — Whiskey, tequila, vodka, gin, rum and maple syrup. Add a splash of cola and a lemon-lime squeeze, and you have an original Long Island Iced Tea. Several locations along Kingsport's new LIT Trail offer the concoction, while others serve their own take on the drink. The trail — which launched this past Saturday with an event at High Voltage — harkens back to the area's history with the Long Island Iced Tea. Visit Kingsport Director of Marketing Chelsea Ketron said the organization, who runs the trail, began researching those ties nearly a decade ago. Kingsport's Long Island spans four miles in the Holston River south of downtown; the island is half a mile at its widest. Now home to industries, a baseball park and a Cherokee monument, the Long Island used to be residential. There, in the 1920s, bootlegger Charles Bishop mixed the original Long Island Iced Tea, Ketron said. His recipe included five liquors and maple syrup. Bishop's son, Ransom, later added lemon, lime and cola. This was decades before New York's LIT was first mixed in 1972 — albeit with a different recipe. Visit Kingsport did a trial run of the trail a few years ago, lasting the month of June. Now, the trail is back year-round, with more businesses and a digital passport. Patrons can download the free passport from visitkingsport.com/longisland. It shows a map of businesses on the trail — there's currently 25 — and their LIT special. Some businesses have non-alcoholic items, like Bellafina Chocolates' truffles or Cornucopia's popcorn. Users earn points for visiting locations, which can unlock prizes. "It's very user-friendly," Ketron said. "You can stop and start at any point. We want you to explore the entire trail [over repeat visits]." Ketron said Visit Kingsport anticipates more businesses joining the trail, as well as seasonal or event-based offerings. Businesses may also rotate their special item in and out, or change it entirely. At the end of the day, Ketron said, the LIT trail isn't really about the alcohol — although that is the starting point. "It became a way to tell the story of Kingsport and encourage visitation," she said. "We want people to come here and discover businesses all across the city, and this is just a little spin on the local flavor of Kingsport."