I get out of here bees I got my beekeeper hat on because ah I don't want to get stung or do I [Applause] you know you don't hear much about stingers these days it was once considered how the hell am I gonna drink that I gotta take this off okay yeah okay you know you don't hear much about the stinger these days it was once considered a drink strictly for members of high society a sweet spirit forward after-dinner drink and a digestive I used to drink these refreshingly stiff cocktails before dinner they seemed to perk up my taste buds yeah the Stingers origins are very obscure its creation isn't tied to any one bartender working at some Grand Hotel somewhere or even a dead bar fly for that matter one of the earliest printed recipes that I found is in Tom Bullock's 1917 recipe book the ideal bartender but even earlier the stinger went by a couple other names in his 1891 recipe book the flowing Bowl when and what to drink by the only William William Smith he calls it the judge here's the recipe as you can see we've got a mixing glass two-thirds full of ice three dashes of gum I'm assuming this gum syrup one-third of creme de menthe and two-thirds of brandy shake to the freezing point strain and serve in a cocktail glass well four years later it shows up with a different name in George Jake appellees book modern American drinks how to mix all kinds of cups and drinks it's called a Brandt cocktail we got a mixing glass half full fine ice two dashes angostura bitters one third of a [ __ ] white creme de menthe two thirds of a [ __ ] of brandy mix well strain into a cocktail glass twist a piece of lemon peel over top now there's a little variation here with the addition of the bitters and the lemon twist but essentially it's a stinger so as you can see the stinger is a pre-prohibition cocktail however in 1923 during Prohibition in a newspaper gossip column the invention of the stinger is credited to Reginald Vanderbilt you might not remember him but he was an American millionaire and was then heir to the Vanderbilt railroad fortune you probably remember his daughter fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt with all her designer jeans hmm so the story goes Reginald Vanderbilt known as Reggie to his friends made a lot of stingers during daily cocktail hour for himself and for his friends at his home bar in his Fifth Avenue mansion though the cocktail originated as a sweet after-dinner drink Reggie started mixing them up a little less sweet which seemed appropriate for pre-dinner sipping now Reggie he had a drinking problem I'm sure because he died from liver failure due to alcohol abuse in 1925 at the ripe old age of 45 that's yummy I hope Reggie's cirrhosis of the liver doesn't turn you off with putting a little tingle back in your taste buds because I'm gonna make you a classic stinger right now it's stinger time let's make this thing okay what we're gonna do here is grab some ice and fill our glass portion of our shaker looking good now I picked up a new bottle of brandy VSOP so it's a least four years old and one of the reasons I bought this was because they claim that it's exceptionally smooth and with a velvet taste so maybe we should taste this thing to see what it actually does taste like no that would work just fine yeah no problem there okay what we want two ounces of brandy we've got our creme de menthe and you want half an ounce to 3/4 ounce depends how minty you like it right that should just be fine and we're just gonna stir this up you're nice and chilled I got a rock glass here and I like ice in my stingers a lot of times though you will find them straight-up chilled then they're wonderful too but I like a little ice in my life for my stingers anyway so what we want to do now just pour it out oh yeah that looks divine sweets a lot of times they'll just garnish with a fresh piece of mint but I'm thinking well you know it's already minty with the creme de menthe personally I like lemon I think the lemon counteracts and balances all that mint eNOS with the brandy it just works wonderful give her a little squeeze and we're in there are lots of variations on the stinger the green stinger or the Green Hornet as it is known replaces white creme de menthe with green creme de menthe the bee stinger replaces the brandy with blackberry brandy it still uses the white creme de menthe though you've got your amaretto stinger where amaretto is used instead of the bread the dixie stinger uses bourbon white creme de menthe and should I even mention it peach schnapps mmm that is absolutely delicious you know it's spirit forward obviously it's chilled down diluted it enough that it just has this wonderful balanced quality going on it has a slight hint of mint because we didn't use very much and the lemon cuts through everything makes everything wonderfully balanced so if you're looking for a little bit of sting in your life make one of these yeah baby mmm it's goodness anyway so what we want to do now is just us where the hell is it ah okay so oh oh I just I don't have to get rid of the Beast I got my stinger yeah be cool be a subscriber ha sting bee sting bee sting me ah how the hell am I gonna drink this