B-53 Shot
Coffee liqueur, Irish cream, and vodka layered in a shot glass - the B-52 with the orange liqueur swapped for vodka, giving a cleaner, less sweet finish.
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The B-53 is a layered shooter within the B-52 family, the numbered set of variations that spread through North American bars in the 1980s. The parent B-52 - coffee liqueur, Irish cream and Grand Marnier - is most often credited to bartender Peter Fich at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, Canada, around 1977, and the numbered offshoots each swap one component. Difford's Guide gives the B-53 as coffee liqueur, Irish cream and vodka, the clear vodka replacing the B-52's orange liqueur to leave a cleaner, less sweet finish over the coffee and cream. The name is used inconsistently in the wider literature: several references instead define the B-53 as coffee liqueur, sambuca and Grand Marnier, swapping the anise liqueur in for the Irish cream. Both circulate; this page follows Difford's vodka build. The B-52, B-53 and B-54 all appear together in The Bartender's Cherry, published 1987.
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