A Bit of a Jello Shot History

Old men say: "Without knowing the past, we cannot be successful in future". Should it be taken into account by Jello Shot Recipe blog? Sure :)

It is widely considered that Tom Lehrer was the first inventor of jello shots. It is wrong actually :) The story is quite curious though.

He was in the military and lack of the alcohol was a problem for a good party. No problem - he just took famous Jell-O gelatine and some drinks. One of the good jello shot recipe was vodka plus orange Jell-O (tasty!). That's unbelievable, but guards have let them in to the naval base as nothing like this was ever known!

Let me give you a quote from The Remains of Tom Lehrer:

In 1955 Tom had a different sort of business to take care of -- the U.S. Army. The draft was very much alive during the '50s, and most able-bodied young American men saw military service sooner or later. 'I went into the Army for two years: January 1955 to January 1957. Believe it or not, I enjoyed it ... The only thing I did contribute to the war effort was vodka Jell-O. I was assigned to a naval base, even though I was in the army. We wanted to have a Christmas office party, but the rules forbade all alcoholic "beverages," so a friend of mine and I decided to confront this challenge. Of course there's plum pudding and the like, but you have to eat too much to produce any effect. So she and I experimented with various flavours of Jell-O, various alcoholic ingredients, and various proportions. Obviously, you can't experiment too extensively, because you soon lose your powers of discrimination, but we settled on vodka in orange Jell-O -- same recipe as on the box, only with vodka instead of the cold water. I have heard that daiquiris are good in lime Jell-O. We filled little paper cups with the final product, took them into the base past the guards, and nobody said anything. It was a very nice party.'

Great idea, isnt' it? But wait! Who was the first one then, you ask?

There is one outstanding book existing - How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon Vivant's Companion by Jerry Thomas, which is dated 1862 (!). It had plenty of cocktails and one jello shot recipe was just imperceptible. I made a screenshot of it, so you can prepare now the very first jello shot on your own :)

Punch, Orange/Lemon Jell-O - enjoy!