B-52 Shot

Serve in

Garnish:

None

How to make:

Refrigerate ingredients then LAYER in chilled glass by carefully pouring in the following order.

Hazardous ingredients

Irish cream liqueur is potentially hazardous to those with allergy or intolerance.

Review:

Probably the best-known and most popular shot.

Variant:

B-51 = coffee + Irish cream + hazelnut liqueur

B-52 with Bomb Bay Doors = coffee liqueur + Irish cream liqueur + Grand Marnier + Bombay Original gin

B-52 Frozen = blend coffee + Irish cream + Grand Marnier with crushed ice

B-52 in the Desert / B-52 with a Mexican Tailgunner = coffee liqueur + Grand Marnier + tequila

B-52 with a Full Payload = coffee liqueur + Irish cream liqueur + Grand Marnier + hazelnut liqueur + float of lit overproof rum

B-53 = coffee + Irish cream + vodka or = coffee liqueur + Sambuca + Grand Marnier

B-54 = coffee + Irish cream + amaretto

B-55 / B-52 Gunship = coffee liqueur + Irish cream liqueur + absinthe

B-57 = coffee liqueur + peppermint schnapps + Grand Marnier

B-156 = an oversized B-52 served in an old-fashioned glass

B-5200 = coffee + Irish cream + Navy rum

F-16 = coffee + Irish cream + light white rum

History:

A bartender named Peter Fich is most often credited for creating this cocktail in 1977 while working at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada.

The 1977 date of origin fits when cocktail books of the era are checked. For example, the B-52 doesn't make it into Jones' Complete Barguide, published that very year as "The most comprehensive and up to date collection of drink recipes (4,000)." Ten years on, the B-52, B-53, and B-54 all make it into The Bartender's Cherry published 1987.

Apparently, Fich tended to name his cocktail creations after his favourite bands, their songs, or albums - one such band being The B-52s. The band, which formed in 1976, was named after the beehive hairstyle that adorned vocalist Cindy Wilson, the shape of which resembled the nosecone of the B-52 bomber. The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, a U.S. high-altitude bomber, was built between 1952 and 1962 and entered service as a long-range nuclear bomber. So this layered shot is named after a band, named after a hairstyle, that's named after a bomber. Hence, the roundabout truth is that this shot takes its name from the B-52 bomber.

Nutrition:

130 calories

Alcohol content:

• 0.8 standard drinks
• 26.36% alc./vol. (52.72° proof)
• 11.9 grams of pure alcohol