B. J. Shot
Layer ∙ 2 min ∙ 21.4% ABV ∙
The B.J. Shot is a layered shot of orange-cognac liqueur, Irish cream liqueur, and a float of cream, served in a shot glass. Sweet chocolate-orange notes lead, the cream softening the liqueurs' edge into a smooth, dessert-like finish — a quick round-closer, not a sipper.
Ingredients
1
Servings
Instructions for 1 serving
- Pre-chill a glass
- Refrigerate all ingredients
- Carefully layer in the chilled glass in the following order: Cognac orange liqueur (e.g., Grand Marnier) 15 mlIrish cream liqueur 15 mlSingle cream/half-and-half 10 ml
Tips
- Layer in order of descending density: pour Grand Marnier first, then Irish cream, then cream last so each floats without piercing the layer below.
- Pour each layer over the back of a bar spoon held just above the liquid surface to prevent the streams from merging into a single murky layer.
- Chill all three ingredients beforehand since cold liqueurs are more viscous and separate into cleaner, sharper bands in the shot glass.
- Pour slowly in a thin, steady stream down the spoon's curve; rushing the final cream layer is the most common cause of a blended, muddy shot.
History
The B. J. Shot — better known as the Blow Job Shot — emerged from the wave of provocatively named layered shooters that swept American bars in the 1980s and 1990s, alongside drinks like the Sex on the Beach and the Slippery Nipple. No single bartender or bar is credited with inventing it; cocktail historians trace the fad to the marketing-driven boom of sweet fruit and cream liqueurs during that era, when brash names became a selling point in nightclubs and college bars. Drinks historians place the shot's rise specifically in the mid-1990s, tied to the growing popularity of bachelorette parties, and note that the earliest written reference found in print appears in a 1999 bachelorette-party guide by Herbert I. Kauet. The shot's name and its tradition of being drunk hands-free, mouth to glass, both stem from its risqué reputation rather than from any documented single origin story.
