Lis found better Blue Blazer mugs.

[xiphias]

She checked out "Things Remembered", which is a mall store which sells random crap that you can have engraved. It's basically where you go to get presents for people that you don't know very well, but you figure, "Sure, I bet that person would LOVE a silver-plated cake server with their name engraved on it!"

I actually like a lot of the crap they sell at "Things Remembered", actually. . . I don't know what that says about me. I have a Zippo and a flask I got from there. Actually, I can't remember: I may have gotten the Zippo somewhere else and had it engraved there.

Anyway, she found tankards that are big and have flared lips. The flared lips make them pour more smoothly, and they're bigger so they're a bigger target, and they have a sloped-out side, so that the base is larger than the mouth, so that if things splash up, they don't splash out. They're stainless steel and shiny, and are therefore perfect for Blue Blazers.

And I think I've got the recipe down, now. Heat up the mugs by washing them in hot water. Two shots of overproof rye whiskey in one of them, half a shot of Turbinado sugar, two dashes of Fey Brothers' Orange Bitters, and about as much boiling water as you had rye whiskey, in the other one.

Light the rye, and pour back and forth.

I had trouble getting the rye to catch just now, and I ended up pouring NON-burning rye into the boiling water-and-sugar mixture -- then lit THAT. The vapors came right off and caught. So I was able to pour it back and forth then.

Keep pouring until the rye goes out.

Light it again, and pour it back and forth until it extinguishes itself again.

And do it a third time.

By doing this much time-on-fire, it tastes like the sugar caramelizes, and also, enough of the alcohol burns off to make it not actually all that harsh. Lis is able to drink it.

I mean, Lis is able to drink a drink based on harsh overproof rye whiskey.

Oh -- and for you Canucks reading this: when I say "rye", I don't mean your Canadian whiskey. I mean real American rye whiskey. Whiskey made from at least 51% rye. It's a harsh, bold, character-ful spirit -- it's nowhere near as mellow as the stuff you Canadians call "rye". Not even close. "Canadian whiskey" is what my grandmother drinks. The NON-drinking grandmother. (I'm not even kidding about that -- Nana Barbara is the only one in the family who drinks Canadian Club. . .)

This is RYE. This is the stuff that tough-as-nails cowboys had trouble choking down. And that modern cowboys probably haven't even ENCOUNTERED.

I, of course, drink it by the gallon, but that's because that's just how tough I am. But Lis is a girly-drink person. Which, I guess, is okay, with her being a girl and all. And I managed to smooth out the rye -- the OVERPROOF rye -- enough for HER to like it.

ETA: Lis took a video of it on her cell phone:

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

There's gotta be a blackmail photo somewhere of you drinking something pink with an umbrella in it.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I didn't say that I don't ALSO drink pink frilly drinks. One of my favorite drinks is a Grasshopper. You don't get much more girly than that. Unless you put ice cream in it. Which I do.

[wordweaverlynn.livejournal.com]

Wow, the blaze really is blue, isn't it? Amazingly cool.

Also, the video goes well with Placido Domingo singing Donizetti: Una Furtiva Lagrima - L'elisir D'amore.

[gingicat]

Cool!

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

wow, blue shiny indeed. And the tankards do a great job, looks much better than the smaller cups/glasses the chap in the vid you posted the other week had (what's better than liquid blue fire poured from hand ot hand? LOTS of liquid blue fire, oh yes.. :)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Forest says "try it with absinthe" (assuming you can get hold of the stuff) but I fear for your beard personally

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Absinthe is now legal to import to the United States (as of the last couple months -- very recent development), and we DO have some Absente (a no-wormwood Absinthe substitute) downstairs, which, I suppose, if we can now get the real stuff, I may as well try that . . .

Of course, I'd use white sugar rather than turbinado, and not use the bitters. . . it might work. . .

[desperance.livejournal.com]

... but would it burn green?

*suspects not*

*sighs*

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

No, it burns blue, just like any other alcohol.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Pfui. Where is the Green Fairy, when you want her...?

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

Drink enough absinthe and she'll appear. Although I don't guarantee that she'll look like Kylie Minogue. :-)

Absinthe is now legal to import to the United States

[stickylatex.livejournal.com]

I did not know that. I'd still love to try it one of these days, but I guess it will be years, since I'm trying to conceive. (Might be illegal again by then. Ha.)

[temima.livejournal.com]

So, you're saying that I should get you a a silver-plated cake server with your name engraved on it for your birthday? :)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Naw, that's okay -- I already got one.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

too cool! That looks even better than I had imagined it! I wouldn't want to drink it. I don't think so anyhow. I tend not to like drinks that have to be sneaked past my body's defenses in a swift shot. But I'd happily order three of them just to watch it being made.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

But that's the thing: it's actually very tasty and easy to drink. Like I said, LIS can drink it, and she doesn't drink things in which she can really taste the alcohol.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

careful...I might drink too much if that turns out to be drinkable for me :) Again, that's such a cool drink!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Ok, that's just *awesome*.

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

yeah, that was fun to watch. Another good one was Xiphias bartending at the Ziggurat Labs party at Arisia.

[rebmommy.livejournal.com]

You have many talents, my son - I am glad you have found a wife who appreciates them so much - enough to capture them on her cellphone video!

[lettres-mortes.livejournal.com]

Very cool. What kind of Rye are you using? The only ones I can find down here are Old Overholt, Jim Beam Yellow, Wild Turkey Green, and Sazerac Rye. I thought about maybe trying it with Bookers (not a Rye, but over proof.)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

That was the Rittenhouse Overproof. Wild Turkey Green should work -- I haven't tried it, but it's 101 proof, right?

I've also used an overproof bourbon, which worked well.

Don't use the Bookers -- not because it won't work; it probably WILL work -- but because Bookers is too good to set on fire. It's the same problem as the Talisker. Just drink the Bookers. With a little splash of water to open up the flavors.

MAN, do I love Bookers.

I've got some other recipes and stuff tagged "bartending" here, if you want to poke around.