another flaming drink question

Sorry for the repeat post. I know this has been asked before but I couldn't find it using search.

Will flaming 151 hurt a ceramic mug? I know you can pour it in a lemon or lime peel or soak a crouton or whatever. But can you just pour 151 on top of a drink and light it?

Finky,
funny, was just lookin at an old thread about drinks that TC members have developed, one we started right around one of your birthdays. Guess you had just gotten Beachbum Berry's books that year.
Anyways, you can't just float 151 on top of a drink and get it to light; fi it does light it will be low flame and for a very short amount of time. Also consider a safety factor, if you get the surface of a drink to ignite, the straw will melt. It will not float completely surface on most drinks, and will not keep concentrated enough to be ignitable. Definitely go for the lime shell float. Make sure to remove as much of the lime innards as possible.
As far as how ignited 151 will affect ceramic: lit long and hot enough, the surface of the ceramic can be extremely hot to touch. as long as the volcano float is glazed, the worst that can happen is that the glaze could possibly cause some discoloration and or pinholing in the surface. What i am starting to research right now is glaze crazing. I am not sure whether or not igniting 151 in a ceramic vessel aides in crazing. I think fast and extreme temperature changes do the most damage. My thinking is that dishwashers due the most harm. Water gets into the open(non glazed) area of the foot, which coupled with quick change in temp cause shrinkage and expansion that effects the glaze "fit." This may increase the incidence or speed up the start of crazing.
Glaze chemistry is such an interesting art science. the chemicals are composed of natural compounds , and even in the most controlled production enviroment, there is always uncontrollable variables due to this.
The guys at MUNKTIKI do beautiful glaze work. I wonder if they might chime in on the subject.
Just my 2 cents,
TT

If you do want to flame a drink pour the 151 rum into a teaspoon gently heat and flame it in the spoon, and then gently tip the flaming spoon of rum into the surface of the drink and enjoy.

I need some tips. Oh, not the money kind of tips, nice as chumpchange is. I need help with a flaming drink (other than have a fire extinguisher handy).

I've been working on a "signature" drink for our bar.....and it's been one failure after another. I'm okay with the drink part, it's the flame part that's failing.

What I'm trying to achieve is to have a flaming drink and I'd like the flames to "toast" or warm a couple pieces of pinapple that have been soaked in rum and brown sugar. The idea is to get a little "candy" on the very edges of the pineapple from the little flames. But I haven't been able to get the 151 to light in the frozen drink at all. It seems to sink into the frosty stuff and won't light.

I started out with heavy duty, very thick stemmed ice cream parfait glasses from restaurant supply. I've gotten experimental 151 rum floating flame in them on top of water for as much as 1 whole minute without a crack.....oh I know it gets too hot to drink out of, but at least I won't worry about glass exploding in someone's face. I used glass paints to fix them up with a little lava theme (after you paint your design, you bake the glass in the oven and it's permanent, you can even run it through the dishwasher without the paint coming off).

I read through the stuff that "flaming drink" brought up at TC, so I want to try the lime shell idea but can't figure out how to prop up the couple pieces of pineapple over the flame......it'd be real fun if I could figure out how to put it on a little mini-spit for 30 seconds of flaming fun, but I'd settle for most anything at this point.

Here's what I have so far (the no-name LavaLounger drink):

One whole plastic jar of Dole pineapple chunks with juice (about 2-1/2 cups. I don't used canned, it doesn't taste as good as it has a metallic-tin taste to me)
Take out about 6 pineapple sections and soak in 151rum and as much brown sugar that will dissolve in the rum)
1/2 cup spiced rum
1/2 cup malibu pineapple rum
1/2 cup Rompope (cream liquor)
1/2 cup Cruzan Rum Cream
151 rum to float
Grenadine-Of-Choice (to sink if you use clear glassware, I use regular grenadine)
About 4 cups of ice cubes.

I have a margarita machine, and boy, there just isn't anything better on the entire planet to make frozen drinks with, impressive to guests too, but if you don't want to pony-up for one of them ($300), use your blender with a good ice blade and you might have to cut the receipe in half. Makes enough for about 4-12oz tiki mugs.

Make it: Dump the jar of pineapple into the blender with the spiced rum, pineapple rum, Rompope and rum cream and blend it all until smooth (first blending smooths out pineapple chunks), then add the ice and blend again until frosty. Depending on your tiki mug sizes depends on how many drinks you get out of it. I use clear hurricane glasses sometiems and sink grenadine on the bottom, gives it sort of a "sunset" look....or lava look.

Anyway, this is the drink I want to top with flames and the "grilled" pineapple for the fancy-schmancy signature drink at my tiki bar. Any ideas for "showy-ness" anyone?? Total excessive overkill is good too. I just love garnishes tht look like a bizarre tiki extravaganza! Even if they hate the drink, they'll rememeber the presentation.

Thanks,
LavaLounger

Alcohol will tend to flame easier if it is heated. When the 151 hits the top of your frozen drink, it probably gets really cold, really fast (and dilutes). You could try keeping the 151 bottle in a sink full of hot water to heat it. Sometimes I microwave whatever I'm going to flame, but you don't want to mess with that. You need to flame it pretty quick, cause even if it is warm, it will still cool down quick.

Another thing you can do is adapt a technique from the Lemon Drop (the fancy one).

http://www.liquoranddrink.com/Drinks/63-Fancy-Lemon-Drop/

Put the Pineapple on a heatproof plate or bowl. Douse with warm 151 and light. Serve the drink with the flaming bowl next to it. You could put some sugar on the pineapple like in the Lemon Drop recipe. When the fire goes out, either they enjoy the pineapple with the drink, or leave some room on top of the drink and dump the pineapple in.

To get flame and pineapple and etc... on top of your drink, try using wooden skewers that have been soaked in water. Poke a long skewer through a lime shell with the pineapple above the lime shell. If you use a long skewer that reaches the bottom of the glass it should help keep the top stable to serve. I say 'should' so test first... Then, heat some 151, pour it into the shell and ignite. You could try to run the lime shells though the microwave so they too are hot, that might keep the flame up a bit ontop of a frozen drink....

That's a great idea (the skewer). I'll have to try that myself.

Great idea with the limeshell and skewer for the marinated pineapple chunks....I can't wait to give it a try. Thanks for the idea.

So far, I'm working on the skewer thing. I got plastic test tubes and stuck a long bamboo skewer in it, filled it with pineapple juice and froze it, sort of a pineappcicle. I thought it might give the skewer some ballast in the bottom of the drink. The trouble now is, the skewers get a bit skewed though and won't stay in the center for freezing......grrr. And when I try to take them out of the test tubes, no matter how slow I try to pull them out, it forms suction in the bottom of the tube and ends up pulling off the bottom of the popcicle. This experimenting isn't for the weak at heart. But I'm determined.

LavaLounger

As for keeping the skewer straight, I would stick it through the center of something like a grape or a cork, or something else that's soft and larger than the diameter of the test tube. Pour in your pineapple juice, push the skewer through the grape, then rest the grape on the top of the test tube and push the skewer down to the bottom and center of the tube.

Try dipping the test tube in warm or hot water to release the pineapplesicle. If you use a grape, which will also freeze, dip that end in first to release the grape from the sides of the test tube. Then dip the pineapplesicle side, remove, and cut the skewer with good scissors to the desired length.