B-52 Shot

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, named after a bomber. Hence, the roundabout truth is that this shot takes its name from the B-52 bomber.