Kamikaze

This cocktail was created in the United States, at the end of the Pacific War (1941-1945), during the Second World War. It is named after the suicide bombers of the Japanese Empire. These suicidal commando pilots of the Japanese imperial aviation sacrificed themselves according to the traditional codes of the Bushido of the Samurai, by suicide missions, by deliberately crashing with their famous fighter plane loaded with explosives, after a last glass of sake, on the warships of the United States Navy and their allies, to sink them.

A second story tells us that the Kamikaze cocktail was created in 1974 at the Eliot Lounge in the city center of Boston, whose creator was a barman named Liam. He liked to drink vodka with lime juice, one day had the idea of adding a bit of triple sec in his favorite drink, liked the result of the combination the bartender called the Liam cocktail so much.

The Eliot Lounge was very popular, always lively. Every year during the famous Boston Marathon, this restaurant was constantly full of runners, spectators, journalists and all sorts of influential people. It is assumed that an administrator of the Smirnoff company visited Eliot Lounge. This drink appeared after a year in a Vodka Smirnoff recipe book, but not as Liam, but as a Kamikaze cocktail.

The ingredients of the Kamikaze cocktail

What are the ingredients of the Kamikaze cocktail? To make the Kamikaze cocktail, you will need the following four ingredients: 4 cl of vodka, 2 cl of triple sec, 2 cl of lime juice, and 1 lime wedge to serve as decoration.

Preparing the Kamikaze cocktail

The preparation of the Kamikaze cocktail is done in a shaker. First rotate ice cubes in a cocktail glass, just to refresh it well. Then pour all the ingredients one by one into the shaker, vodka, triple sec, and lime juice. Add a large number of ice cubes and shake for 15 seconds. Remember to remove the ice from the cocktail glass before pouring the mixture into it, double filtering it with a cocktail strainer. Finally, you can decorate your glass with a lime wedge.

Variations of the Kamikaze cocktail

Among the variations of the Kamikaze cocktail, we find its shot version (with only 2 cl of vodka instead of 4 cl), the Blue Kamikaze (where the triple sec is replaced by blue curacao), the Balalaika (where the lemon juice green is replaced by lemon juice), Red Lion (same as for Balalaika but with more orange juice), or even Kamikaze Mocktail, an alcohol-free version of the classic cocktail based on juice orange, lime juice, Angostura bitters, and Schweppes Lemon.

Kamikaze included in the list of IBA official cocktails and classed as an All Day Cocktail.