B-52 (Layered)
This layered drink is also classified as a pousse-café1
Glass: Pony or Shooter
Method: Layer into a Pony or Shooter Glass (or serve it on the rocks)
Ingredients:
3/4 oz Kahlua
3/4 oz Bailey’s Irish Cream
3/4 oz Grand Marnier
Garnish: None
This drink has the taste of coffee (the rum based Kahlua), Sweet Irish Honey Cream Whiskey (Bailey’s), and Orange Cognac (the Grand Marnier which is Cognac blended with Triple Sec).
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress2 was a WWII bomber and transport plane which was known worldwide as the workhorse of the sky because it did everything – it was a bomber, it carried troops and paratroopers, and it transported vehicles and supplies.
To remember this drink I like to think of the allies fighting along side us to defeat the Nazis and Japanese. There were the Mexicans (Kahlua), the Irish (Baileys) and the French (Grand Marnier) – there were no Germans on those planes, so the “G” is for Grand Marnier (our French allies) and not Goldschläeger, which is Swiss German.
Footnotes 👇
- The Pousse-Café is a layered drink, a kind of cocktail in which the slightly different densities of various liqueurs are used to create an array of colored layers, typically two to seven. The specific gravity of the liquid ingredients increases from top to bottom. The general rule is that the higher the alcohol percentage, the lower the density. The lower the alcohol, the higher the density. It’s a safe rule of thumb that layers should have 12% differences in alcohol to float upon one another and stay separated. So a 24 proof alcohol will float on a 12 proof, and a 36 proof will float upon a 24 proof[↩]
- American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) since the 1950s. The bomber is capable of carrying up to 70,000 pounds (32,000 kg) of weapons,[5] and has a typical combat range of more than 8,800 miles (14,080 km) without aerial refueling.[↩]
