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:

1. Most bartenders don’t know how —or don’t want— to make one because it’s dangerous.

2. It’s not that tasty.

For the life of me, I have not been able to figure out where I first read about the Stinger cocktail, but I will never forget the story behind it (at least the story I read, not necessarily its origin story since I can’t find it anywhere else). It went something like this: