Kamikaze Shot

The original 1970s shooter that launched a thousand imitators. Vodka, triple sec, and fresh lime create a tart, bracing shot that's stood the test of time for good reason.

The Kamikaze shot is a structural cousin of the Margarita, substituting vodka for tequila in the same three-part sour template of spirit, orange liqueur, and citrus that defines the Mexican classic. Its name borrows the Japanese word kamikaze — written with the characters for divine and wind — which originally referred to the typhoons that destroyed the Mongol invasion fleets attempting to reach Japan in 1274 and 1281, events attributed by the Japanese to divine intervention. The word was adopted during the Second World War to designate Japan's Special Attack Corps pilots, who flew deliberately into Allied naval vessels as suicide weapons from October 1944 until the end of the war in August 1945. The shot's emergence in 1970s American bar culture reflects the casualness with which Japanese military references circulated in post-war popular culture rather than any ideological intent — the name was chosen primarily for its dramatic, explosive connotation and its Japanese exoticism. The shot itself belongs to the disco era's enthusiasm for cold, citrus-bright, efficiently delivered drinks: it can be prepared and consumed within seconds, it tastes clean and sharp rather than sweet, and it photographs well in a chilled shot glass with its perfectly clear pale color. The formula of vodka, triple sec, and lime juice — shaken with ice and strained — produces a drink with genuine balance, the triple sec's orange sweetness bridging the vodka's neutral bite and the lime's sharp acid.