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Blue Blazer

Classic/vintage · Hall of Fame and must know/try · Hot Drinks

3.8 15 ratings

Ingredients

4 oz Scotch whisky
4 oz Boiling water
1 barspoon Powdered sugar

How to make

Serve in a snifter/brandy balloon glass

Prepare

  1. 1 Select and pre-heat a SNIFTER/BRANDY BALLOON GLASS.
  2. 2 WARNING - Igniting alcohol is extremely dangerous, so take great care, and please practice with water first to perfect your method. Stand on a non-flammable floor and have help and suitable fire-fighting equipment nearby.
  3. 3 This recipe makes two cocktails.

Method

  1. 4 Prepare garnish of two lemon zest twists.
  2. 5 Preheat a pair of large silver-plated tankards (blazer mugs) with handles with boiling water and pre-warm the whisky by standing the bottle in hot water.
  3. 6 POUR the whisky into one tankard and fresh boiling water into the other.
  4. 7 IGNITE the whisky using a long match and while still blazing pour the whisky into the other tankard.
  5. 8 THROW the flaming mixture from one tankard to the other. (The foolhardy increase the distance between the tankards as they pour, thus creating a spectacular long blue flame between the two.)
  6. 9 EXTINGUISH flame by covering flaming tankard with base of the other tankard.
  7. 10 POUR into glasses and sweeten to taste by stirring in powdered sugar.

Garnish

  1. 11 EXPRESS a lemon zest over each cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour profile

History

The showy method for preparing a simple hot whisky punch.

This visually striking preparation involves igniting a spirit (typically whiskey or brandy) and then pouring the flaming liquid between two handled, silver-plated tankards known as Blazer Mugs, creating a blue arc of flame between them. Jerry Thomas, recognized as the author of the first bartending book and a traveling performance bartender, created this flaming cocktail. Thomas was a master of showmanship, utilizing solid silver bar tools and cups adorned with precious stones and metals. He recognized the importance of a captivating presentation when preparing drinks, drawing audiences who were as interested in his 'act' as they were in his renowned cocktails. Referred to as the 'Professor' for his skill in handling "with the fanciest orders imaginable," Thomas developed his signature Blue Blazer cocktail while employed at the El Dorado, a gambling saloon in San Francisco during the gold rush era. It is said that he would hold the tankards a meter apart and would only prepare the drink if the outside temperature was 10°C (50°F) or below, though he would make an exception if the person ordering was experiencing symptoms of a cold or the flu, as the drink was intended to alleviate them. The origin story recounts a large, imposing man entering the bar where Thomas was working and, according to Herbert Asbury's 1928 account, demanding: "Bar-keep! Fix me up some hellfire that'll shake me right down to my gizzard!" Thomas then poured ignited whiskey and boiling water between two mugs. In Asbury's narrative, the man consumed the cocktail and exclaimed, "He done it. Right down to my gizzard! Yes, sir, right down to my gizzard!" President Ulysses S. Grant reportedly witnessed Thomas's performance and was so impressed that he gifted him a cigar. In his 1862 Bartender's Guide, Thomas described the drink, stating: "A beholder gazing for the first time upon an experienced artist, compounding this beverage, would naturally come to the conclusion that it was a nectar for Pluto rather than Bacchus."

Created by Jerry 'The Professor' Thomas