I dunno if there is a theory about this. At least, I am unaware of it. Some friends and I once tried to invent a new drink by mixing various liquors and we failed miserably. Every concoction we made was awful…really, really bad.
To be fair, we had no real theory or rhyme or reason to it. Still, it was pretty bad.
Maybe there is a theory to work all this out but I do not know what it is. Certainly nothing to get you to a Long Island Iced Tea. Obviously someone did it though.
It’s not that strong (one page estimates ~22% ABV), plus there is a lot of stuff in it and pure alcohol itself does not really have much taste in the classical sense.