How to make a Blue Blazer
Should my dinner call for a theatrical nightcap, I’ll reach for a Blue Blazer cocktail and explain to the audience that there’s two reasons they may not have heard of this cocktail that is 170+ years old:
Most bartenders don’t know how —or don’t want— to make one because it’s dangerous.
It’s not that tasty.
First, the history. According to Imbibe magazine, the cocktail dates back to the 1850s and was immortalized by Jerry Thomas, aka The Professor, widely considered the father of American mixology. It gets its name from the blue flames that appear after overproof whiskey is lit on fire and transferred back-and-forth between two tankards.
Which explains the danger! There are literal flames connecting the tankards as the liquid passes between them, and of course, the greater distance to pour, the cooler the flames look. The flames are dangerous, yes, but most likely to injure the bartender is any boiling hot water that misses the tankard and lands on an exposed wrist or finger. Trust me, I speak from experience*.
Avoiding a burn is relatively easy if you’re willing to put in just a couple hours of practice. With your two tankards, fill them each with 3.5 oz of cold water and practice pouring the contents of one into the other, then back, back to the first, back again, and so on for about 4-5 transfers. Try not to spill any. After you’re comfortable with that with cold water, try warm water. Then hot water. Then you’re ready for the real thing! This is a bar trick that looks much harder than it really is if you’re willing to put in a little time practicing.
As for the taste, the recipe is close to a hot toddy but without the honey for sweetness. Some sugar needs to be added, but otherwise, it’s really strong whiskey with water, not the most flavorful or complicated cocktail one would choose to order at a bar.
Prep
For this exercise, you will need:
4 oz. of overproof whiskey (110 proof or higher; 120+ recommended)
3 oz. of boiling water
Two stainless steel tankards
Lighter (torch lighter recommended)
Lemon
Sugar packet or two
Hot toddy glasses (bonus)
Technique
Imbibe magazine adds this note: “It is important to clear the prep area of anything flammable before proceeding, and, as an added precaution, have a damp towel and perhaps a fire extinguisher at hand. Use flameproof mugs with ample handles.”
While not mandatory, it is highly recommended to preheat the insides of the tankards which you can do by filling them with some boiling hot water and then discarding it prior to making the drink. Lighting the whiskey can be tough, but if you can get your hands on a whiskey that’s “cask strength” (i.e. around 125 proof or higher) and you can preheat the tankards, you’ll be in good shape.
Techniques can vary at this stage: some suggest pouring the whiskey and boiling water into the same tankard and lighting it on fire, pouring the contents into the other, empty tankard. My preferred technique is to have only the whiskey in one tankard, the boiling water in the other, and use a torch lighter to ignite the whiskey and then transfer that into the boiling water tankard. You may want to play around with both techniques before deciding which works best for you. Either way you go, add the sugar to one of the tankards.
With the whiskey aflame, pour the contents into the second tankard, then pour all of that into the first tankard, then back into the second until you’ve transferred the juice 4-5 times.
At that point, both tankards may still have flames coming out of the top (that’s good!). The cool way to extinguish them is to cover one tankard with the bottom of the other, depriving the flame of oxygen, and then repeating with the other, if necessary. You’re ready to pour the Blue Blazer into the toddy glasses and garnish with a lemon twist.
Coup de grâce
The recipe above makes 1-2 cocktails depending on how much you want to pour, so it won’t be enough for a dinner for 20. There’s no sense in making it 10 times, and again, most guests won’t want to partake anyways.
At my dinners, I have asked for volunteers that want to try it after explaining a little about it, and in a group of 20, you’ll always find two takers, and rarely anyone that is disappointed they won’t get to try it.
For those brave souls, they get to take home a special souvenir: a hot toddy glass (aka Irish coffee mug).
If you know this will be part of your event experience, consider branded toddy glasses. These make a great gift because most people do not own toddy glasses at home, so you now have given them the appropriate glassware for a hot toddy (or a Blue Blazer if they’re so daring!). At left, the branded glass we gifted as part of the 6sensory Supper that spells out “NIGHTCAP” but with 6sense’s logo substituting for the G.
*I should note that the circumstances of my second-degree burns were unique and entirely my fault. I won’t get into all the details except to say it only happened once, early on, and I always used the tankards I had practiced with after that.
