If you’ve ever had one of “those nights” thanks to Long Island Iced Teas, imagine waking up the next morning and saying, “man, I had one too many Kingsport Iced Teas.” Well, if Amy McColl, the Marketing Manager for Visit Kingsport is to be believed, that is the popular drink’s rightful name.
According to McColl, the Long Island Iced Tea was actually invented by an illegal liquor distiller named Charlie “Old Man” Bishop in the 1920s, on a far lesser-known island in the Holston River near Kingsport, TN. Visit Kingsport even released a video, featuring a man acting as Ransom Bishop (“Old Man” Bishop’s son), describing the creation of the drink, and claiming that Old Man Bishop was mixing the drink “50 years before [the New Yorkers] even thought about it.”
