Kamikaze
A Kamikaze is 45ml vodka, 22.5ml triple sec and 22.5ml fresh lime juice, shaken hard and strained into a chilled coupe with a lime wheel. It is a vodka sour sweetened with orange liqueur, at about 2.7 UK units, and the same mix divided between shot glasses is the Kamikaze shot. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails gives no creator and says the drink emerged in the United States in the mid-1970s. The IBA listed it, at equal parts of each ingredient, until 2020. The 45ml pour here gives the vodka more room and makes a drier drink. Fresh lime is what matters. The sticky, sweet Kamikaze people remember was made with sour mix; with real lime the same three ingredients make a clean, sharp sour.
Glassware: Coupe Glass
Garnish: Lime wheel
Ingredients
45ml
Neutral and clean, 40% ABV. At 45ml it leads the drink rather than sitting level with the orange and lime, as it does in the equal-parts version.
22.5ml
A dry triple sec at 40% ABV, with Cointreau as the reference; Cointreau’s own page gives 40% alc. by vol. It sweetens and adds orange peel; a sweeter, weaker liqueur makes the drink sticky.
22.5ml
Squeezed the same day. Bottled lime or sour mix is the reason the drink has the reputation it has.
Instructions
Squeeze the lime juice the same day, ideally just before you build.
Chill a coupe in the freezer or with ice water.
Add the vodka, triple sec and lime juice to a shaker.
Fill the shaker with cubed ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into the chilled coupe, or divide between three shot glasses.
Garnish the coupe with a lime wheel; shots go without.
Expert Tip
Use lime squeezed that day. Sour mix, a shelf-stable blend of sugar, acid and flavouring, gave the drink its reputation, and fresh lime is the whole fix. The shot needs it as much as the coupe. Choose a dry triple sec at 40% ABV, such as Cointreau, which gives 40% alc. by vol. on its own page. A cheap, weaker orange liqueur adds sugar without the peel and makes the drink sticky. For shots, shake the full measure with ice as usual and divide it between three shot glasses. Shaking chills and dilutes it; poured straight from the bottles it is warm and harsh.
Behind the Kamikaze
Flavour Profile
The Origin
The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails says the Kamikaze is made of equal parts vodka, triple sec and lime juice, usually thrown back as a shot and later served as often as a cocktail, and that it emerged in the United States in the mid-1970s. In our view it stayed a party order for decades, as both a cocktail and a shot.
The IBA listed it at equal parts vodka, triple sec and lime until 2020, when it left the official list.
The Formula
Spirit, orange liqueur and citrus is a long-lived sour frame. The Kamikaze puts the most neutral spirit into it.
Kamikaze and its relatives compared
Kamikaze
- Spec
- 45ml vodka, 22.5ml triple sec, 22.5ml lime
- Strength
- About 2.7 UK units
Kamikaze, equal parts (IBA until 2020)
- Spec
- 30ml each of vodka, triple sec and lime
- Strength
- About 2.4 UK units
Margarita (IBA)
- Spec
- 50ml tequila, 20ml triple sec, 15ml lime
- Strength
- About 2.8 UK units
Cosmopolitan (IBA)
- Spec
- 40ml vodka, 15ml Cointreau, 15ml lime, 30ml cranberry
- Strength
- About 2.2 UK units
| Drink | Spec | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Kamikaze | 45ml vodka, 22.5ml triple sec, 22.5ml lime | About 2.7 UK units |
| Kamikaze, equal parts (IBA until 2020) | 30ml each of vodka, triple sec and lime | About 2.4 UK units |
| Margarita (IBA) | 50ml tequila, 20ml triple sec, 15ml lime | About 2.8 UK units |
| Cosmopolitan (IBA) | 40ml vodka, 15ml Cointreau, 15ml lime, 30ml cranberry | About 2.2 UK units |
Equal parts balance cleanly and make the better shot, sweeter and softer. At 45ml the vodka frames the citrus instead of standing level with it, and the drink comes out drier and better suited to a coupe.
The Sour Mix Problem
Sour mix is a shelf-stable blend of sugar, acid and flavouring, and for years it stood in for fresh lime in busy bars. It tastes of none of the fruit it claims.
That gave the sticky, faintly chemical drink most people remember. Swap the mix for lime squeezed the same day and nothing else needs to change.
Cocktail and Shot
Strained into a coupe it is a crisp sour with a lime wheel; divided between three shot glasses it is the same recipe, drunk faster. Shake it either way: the ice does the chilling and adds the water that softens it.
Three shots hold the same 2.7 UK units as the coupe. Pour them for three people, not one.
Add cranberry and trim the measures and you reach the Cosmopolitan, the same frame in pink.
How to Serve It
Ice-cold, in a chilled coupe with a lime wheel, as soon as it is strained. With three ingredients, dilution and temperature do much of the work.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Kamikaze?
Is the Kamikaze an IBA cocktail?
Kamikaze or Cosmopolitan?
Does it work as a shot?
Why does it have such a bad reputation?
How strong is a Kamikaze?
Why is it called a Kamikaze?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails (Robert Simonson), “Kamikaze” (secondary source: vodka, curaçao and lime juice in equal parts, thrown back as a shot and later served as a cocktail; emerged in the United States in the mid-1970s; the name explained by a 1970s New York bartender: “You don’t feel like killing yourself after a Gimlet.”).
- Cointreau, “Cointreau” (maker’s own page: “Cointreau Liqueur, 40% Alc./Vol.”).
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Cosmopolitan
A Cosmopolitan is 40ml of citrus vodka, 15ml of Cointreau, 15ml of fresh lime juice and 30ml of cranberry juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with an orange twist. About 2.2 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s. The Oxford Companion says the Cosmopolitan has a confused and contested history, that most claims lack supporting evidence, and that the recipe served worldwide was most likely formulated in 1988 by Toby Cecchini at the Odeon in New York, with Absolut Citron, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry, after a cruder San Francisco drink of the same name that the San Francisco Chronicle called “a Kamikaze with cranberry juice” in 1987. Cecchini told Punch the same year, 1988. Under the colour it is a sour: vodka, orange liqueur and lime, with cranberry for tint and a little extra acid. Made with fresh lime and served very cold, it is tart and dry, a long way from the sweet pink drink of its reputation.
White Lady
A White Lady is 40ml of London Dry gin, 30ml of Cointreau and 20ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with lemon peel expressed over the top. About 2.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and there is no egg white in them. The name is older than the recipe. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says Harry MacElhone gave it in 1919, at Ciro’s Club in London, to a drink of brandy, crème de menthe and Cointreau. The gin, Cointreau and lemon version is credited to his rebuild at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in 1929, though Difford’s says most dispute that, and The Savoy Cocktail Book printed it in 1930, also without egg. Egg white came later: Difford’s Guide finds the earliest recipe with it in The Sacramento Bee of 1936. It makes a softer, foamed drink, given here as a variation. The plain version is sharp and dry, the gin in front and the orange behind it.
Margarita
A Margarita is 50ml of 100% agave blanco tequila, 20ml of triple sec and 15ml of fresh lime juice, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe with half the rim salted, with a lime wheel. About 2.8 UK units. Strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, it is the same drink, longer and cooler. These are the IBA’s measures. The lime is the smallest pour, so the agave leads and the orange liqueur rounds it: the drink tastes of tequila first and sour second. The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, in an entry by David Wondrich, calls the origins of the Margarita one of cocktail history’s most notorious swamps, with at least half a dozen plausible claimants, among them Carlos Herrera at Rancho La Gloria in 1947, Margarita Sames in Acapulco in 1948 and the bartender Santos Cruz in Galveston in the same year. It finds the drink under the name Margarita in print in September 1953, in a California newspaper column, followed soon after by Esquire.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026