The Ju52 cocktail

How to make the Ju52 cocktail:

In a tall glass with no ice, mix the following:

2 parts coffee liqueur (e.g. Kahlúa (W))

2 parts cream liqueur (e.g. Baileys Irish Cream (W))

1 part orange liqueur (e g. Grand Marnier (W))

4 parts cold milk.

The special guy that I am, I had to go invent my own cocktail. As its name betrays, it is similar to B52 (W). In fact, the Ju52 is just B52 with cold milk instead of ice.

 

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The benefits

The replacement of ice with cold milk imparts the following benefits to the drink:

1. It is not as sweet as B52.
   
2. It is not as potent, in alcohol, as B52.
   
3. It retains a consistent taste until the end, instead of becoming watery due to melting ice.

Many cocktails include some non-alcoholic ingredient such as fruit juice, soda, tonic water, etc. to lower the potency and/or the sweetness of the drink, but the B52 contains no such thing; it is made of 3 liqueurs, all of which are sweet and potent. As a result, the B52 is perhaps a bit too concentrated. The milk in the Ju52 fixes this, giving the drink a level of sweetness and potency which is just right.

B52 on the rocks also suffers from the melting of the ice: the first sips are nice and sweet and potent, but the last sips tend to be watered-down and tasteless. The Ju52 fixes that too: by removing the ice, the drink maintains a consistent taste until the last drop, while the addition of cold milk keeps the drink chilled.

The milk in the Ju52 blends perfectly with the cream liqueur and the coffee liqueur, while at the same time maintaining the contrast with the orange liqueur, which results in the titillating incongruity between creaminess and acidity that gives the B52 its unique character. 

As a result, the successful recipe of B52 is not desecrated, which means that if you like the B52, you are probably going to also like the Ju52.

 

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The name

The origin of the B52 cocktail is uncertain, but there is no question that it is named after the Boeing B-52 "Stratofortress" (W) bomber of the U.S. Air Force.  (According to rumors, the B52 drink was actually named after the rock band "The B52's" (W), but the band in turn got its name from the "B52 hairstyle" (W), which bears the name of the airplane; so, no matter how we look at it, the name of the drink is ultimately derived from the name of the plane.)

A B-52 (Source)

Remaining true to the theme, the Ju52 cocktail is also named after an airplane, which was also used as a bomber, albeit one of far lesser destructive power than the B-52.

I am of course talking about the Junkers (pronounced yoon-kers) Ju 52/3m (W), the iconic three-engine German transport plane of World War 2.

A restored Ju 52 in flight (Source)

 

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The history

The Ju 52 was introduced as a civilian airliner in the early 1930s, and the Nazi regime forced the Junkers company to adapt it for military use, over the objections of the company's founder, Hugo Junkers (W). During World War 2, the Ju 52 saw action mainly as a transport for supplies and troops. Almost 5000 units were built.

A Ju 52 dropping parachutists in the battle of Crete (W), the largest airborne invasion of the war. (Source)

A seaplane variant of the Ju 52, fitted with floats. (Source)

A Ju 52 fitted with a magnetic ring, used as a naval mine detonator. (Source)

A Ju 52 used as a medical evacuation / ambulance plane. (Source)

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The bomb

Adolf Hitler had a Ju 52 for traveling around, with Lufthansa's civil aviation color scheme and call sign D-2600.

Hitler's Ju 52, from the movie Valkyrie (2008) (W)

One of the assassination attempts against Hitler took place on that plane. It was carried out by Fabian von Schlabrendorff (W) on the 13th of March of 1943, and it involved a bomb which was carried into the plane disguised as bottles of Cointreau. Unfortunately, it failed to explode.

Cointreau is an orange liqueur, so it can also be used in the B52 and Ju52 cocktails, but my personal preference is with Grand Marnier.

On a few occasions the Ju 52 was used as a bomber, but it was rather lousy in that role.

In other words, definitely not a B-52.

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The Wikipedia page for the B52 cocktail.

The Wikipedia page for the Ju 52 airplane.

The beginning of the movie Valkyrie (2008) on YouTube, depicting Fabian von Schlabrendorff's assassination attempt of 1943, as an introduction to the main subject of the movie, which is Claus von Stauffenberg's attempt of 1944.