Shaken until the tin frosts over and poured straight into two chilled shot glasses, the Kamikaze is sharp lime, a flash of orange and clean vodka heat. Served up in a small coupe it becomes a compact sour that drinks a lot like a Margarita made with vodka.
1 oz
vodkae.g. Absolut · Smirnoff · Grey Goose · Ketel One · Belvedere
¾ oz
triple sec or Cointreaue.g. Cointreau · Bols · Marie Brizard · DeKuyper · Giffard
¾ oz
lime juice
Garnish: Small lime wedge · Ice: Served up, no ice
Kamikaze
Tart and citrusy with a soft orange sweetness and a clean vodka finish. Strong for its size and very cold.
The Kamikaze rose to fame in American bars during the 1970s and 1980s, when vodka was the dominant spirit and shooters were in fashion. A popular story says it was first mixed for sailors at a US naval base in Japan after the Second World War, but there is no documentation for that, and the name is best understood as a piece of bar bravado.
In structure it is a sour: spirit, citrus and an orange liqueur, much like a vodka version of the Margarita or a close cousin of the Cosmopolitan, which adds cranberry to almost the same base. Blue Curaçao, raspberry and melon variations appeared as the drink spread through party bars.
Both. It is best known as a shooter, but the same recipe served in a small cocktail glass makes a sour-style cocktail.
The Cosmopolitan uses citrus vodka and adds cranberry juice; the Kamikaze is only vodka, orange liqueur and lime.
The name refers to its reputation as a quick, strong shooter; the often repeated story about a naval base in Japan is not documented.
The perfect sound
Quick, sharp and full of attitude.
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