Long Thailand Iced Tea Recipe

Combine one infamous cocktail with one beloved caffeinated beverage, and what do you get  (besides a possible two-day hangover)? A Long Thailand Iced Tea: the most polarizing and awesome drink being served at Foreign National, a swanky new bar in Seattle.

If messy nights and gnarly hangovers leave you rolling your eyes at the mere mention of this drink, you've come to the right place. The four-month-old, dimly lit cocktail bar connected to Seattle's hit Vietnamese restaurant, Stateside, is doing things differently.

Made with sweetened condensed milk, black tea, brandy, whiskey and rum, this is the elevated version of all the mistakes you made as an early twentysomething.

"People falsely associate creamy with sweet," bar manager Adam Fortuna says, talking about how surprising the Long Thailand Iced Tea is. Though it's sweeter than, say, a Manhattan, it isn't cloying. In fact, it's so delicious you'd be tempted to order more than one, were it not for all the other enticing options on the menu, like the citrusy Sorrel Sour and the bar's eponymous cocktail, which is an update on the pisco sour.

"Foreign National isn't where you go for classic cocktails,"Fortuna says of that infamous mixture of gin, vodka, tequila, rum, triple sec and Coke.

What you will find are culinary-inspired cocktail upgrades and a menu that dispels conventional wisdom. One drink comes with curry and another with anise smoke. You can also order three variations on a shot and a beer, like a Mekhong Thai spirit and a bia hoi beer.

With most of the light coming from votive candles and sconces reflecting off a massive disco ball in the corner, the 70s- and tiki-inspired space makes it easy to order one more drink. And makes it easy to have a sleepless-in-Seattle kind of night.

Recipe adapted from Foreign National, Seattle, WA