Three Flaming Cocktails For “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”
Look, your girlfriend’s gonna make you go see it, so you may as well be wasted.
Blue Blazer
By David Wondrich, cocktail historian
You need:
[Serves 4]
5 oz. cask-strength single malt Scotch whisky, such as The Glenlivet, Nadurra, Laphroaig, or The Macallan; the whisky must be over 50% abv for it to work well.
Four teaspoons raw sugar (Demerara or Turbinado)
Lemons for peeling
Pot of boiling water
Four espresso cups
Two metal mugs
Bucket of water (just in case…)
Step 1
Clear all flammable materials from the mixing area and have a bucket of water handy. Lay down some damp cloth napkins for the spills (there will be spills).
Step 2
Prepare the espresso cups by putting a teaspoon of raw sugar and a 1” x 1/2” strip of lemon peel in each.
Step 3
Pour a half-cup of boiling water into one of the metal mugs. Quickly add the Scotch and light it with a long match or grill lighter.
Step 4
Pick up both mugs, holding them pointing forward with each hand in a 6 o’clock position in relation to the mug, and quickly but carefully pour 3/4 of the contents of the flaming mug into the other one; you should pour the liquid from the side of the mug, not the part directly across from your hand.
Step 5
Now pour 3/4 of the flaming whisky-water mix back into the first mug, from a greater distance. Repeat five or six times, increasing the distance each time, all the while talking nonchalantly about how Jerry Thomas used to make these back in the days of ‘49.
Step 6
Once the handles start to get too hot to hold, you are done. Cool the mugs in cold water between rounds.
Café Brulot
By Chris Hannah, head bartender at Arnaud’s, New Orleans
You need:
1/8 cup whole cloves
14 cinnamon sticks, broken
1/8 cup granulated sugar
Rind of one lemon
Rind of one orange
1/2 cup Grand Marnier
1/2 cup French Brandy
4 cups coffee
Step 1
Place the cloves in a brulot bowl (or stainless steel/silver bowl). Add the cinnamon sticks, sugar, and lemon rind.
Step 2
Using a paring knife, peel the orange in one continual strip, and leave the peel attached to the orange at one end. Stud the orange with the cloves, recoil the peel around it, and place it in the brulot bowl. Add the Grand Marnier and French Brandy.
Step 3
Set the brulot bowl over a flame and allow all ingredients to heat. Press a fork into the pulp of the orange, lift it from the bowl, and set it aside momentarily.
Step 4
Pour one tablespoon each of Grand Marnier and Brandy into a stainless steel ladle and ignite carefully with a long-stemmed match. With your free hand, pick up the orange on the fork and twirl so the peel twists down into the liquid in the bowl.
Step 5
Pour the flaming alcohol from the ladle down the peel (lights should be dimmed for this), then twice scoop the ladle down into the bowl for more of the now-flaming mixture, and pour it down around the peel. When all the fire burns out, pour the coffee into the bowl. Discard the orange. Serve in New Orleans Café Brulot mugs or in any decorative coffee cups.
Old Flame
By Jim Meehan, general manager of PDT, New York.
You need:
2 oz. Plymouth Gin
3/4 oz. Lemon Juice
3/4 oz. Simple Syrup
1/2 oz. Green Chartreuse V.E.P.
1 Egg White
Step 1
Dry shake, then shake with ice and strain into chilled egg coupe.
Step 2
Pour 1/2 oz. flaming Green Chartreuse V.E.P. over the top.
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