Gizmodo’s Guide to Setting Drinks On Fire

"Fire is cool," quoth Beavis, and yea verily, Butthead did agree. And, honestly, so do we. There's a little bit of a pyro in most of us, and a flaming drink is certainly a spectacle. That said, there's a right way, and a whole lot of wrong ways to do it. Here's the red hot skinny.
It's Friday afternoon, you've made it through the long week, and it's time for Happy Hour, Gizmodo's weekly booze column. A cocktail shaker full of innovation, science, and alcohol. I can't feel my face, which is good, because it's on fire.

Why Light Your Drink?
Let's not bullshit ourselves: 99-percent of the reason people light their drinks on fire is because it looks cool. It's exciting, it's dangerous. It's almost entirely about the spectacle. That said, it does make subtle alterations to the drink's flavor.

The biggest change is that it burns off some of the alcohol. Our tastebuds have trouble making out different, subtle flavors when they're being pummeled with booze. Lowering the proof of the drink will allow you to taste the other elements more. It will, however, get you less drunk the longer you let it flame.

Some will tell you that you do it to warm your drink, which it will a bit. Not a lot, but a little. Anyone who remembers 8th grade science knows that heat rises. Since the flaming element is at the very top of your drink, almost all of that heat energy it's going up and into the air. It can, however, heat the glass it's in, which will conduct some heat downward. But the bottom line is that you'd have to let it burn for quite a while to really heat your drink, and you'd lose a ton of the alcohol. There are better ways to warm your beverage.

Others will tell you that it "caramelizes" an element of the drink. There is some debate about this, but we aren't buying it. Again, heat rises and the sugary elements of the drink (amaretto, for example) are down below the flaming high-proof top. Different sugars caramelize at different temperatures, with the lowest (fructose) starting at 240 degrees Fahrenheit. There is simply no way that's happening underneath the surface of your drink. Sorry. It is, as we've mentioned, certainly is possible to add flavor to your drink with fire, but there are different principles at work.

How It Works
As we mentioned in our Five Scientifically Surprising Facts About Booze piece, it's not really the liquid burning, it's the alcoholic vapors coming off it that catch fire. Generally speaking, higher proof liquor equals faster evaporation and more vapor, but this is dependent on temperature. Hold a match to 80-proof vodka at room temperature, and it won't catch fire. Hold a lighter's flame or a butane torch to it, though, and it will ignite temporarily. This is because lighter's flame is heating the booze a little, and thus generating more vapor. If you carefully heat the vodka to a higher temperature, it produces a lot of vapor, and it will catch fire and burn energetically. (Note: Do not try to do this. That's how I almost burned down Gizmodo HQ last year. Shhhh...) At the same time, even 100-percent pure ethanol will not ignite if the liquid is 55 degrees F or lower.

Because you are typically pouring drinks at room temperature, you need to use a high-proof spirit. Bacardi 151 and Chartreuse are classic examples. In most cases you prepare the full drink and then top it with the really hard stuff. The purer (higher-proof) alcohol will generally be lighter than the other ingredients and will want to stay floating at the top, but it will mix with the rest of it if you're not careful. To help facilitate the floating, pour it very slowly and gently, ideally over the back of a spoon (as if you were making a Black and Tan), so it stays up at the top. Do it right and the drink will light easily.

Safety First
Make sure the area where you're preparing the shot is uncluttered and free of anything flammable. That includes paper towels, napkins, dish clothes, carpet, and small dogs.
If you spill any of your high-proof booze as you're pouring it, clean it the hell up before you light the drink. Make double sure you get any of that booze off your fingers and hands before you light up.
Light with something self-extinguish

ing, like a standard cigarette lighter. Matches and Zippo-style lighters may impart some nasty flavors onto your drink. The safest option is one of those long-neck, aim-a-flame type lighters made for lighting BBQs and candles.
Use a thick glass. As mentioned, exposing glass to fire heats it. Not only is thin glass weaker, but it will heat very rapidly which could shatter it, spilling flaming alcohol everywhere. Not good.
Don't fill the glass all the way to the top. You're either going to be blowing it out or snuffing it out with your hand. If it's too full you're going to blow/splash flaming liquid out of the glass, in which case I hope you're insured.
Have a fire extinguisher within arm's reach an make sure you know how to use it. If this goes wrong, it can go very wrong.