Ingredients: Tequila, 7up or ginger ale, lemonade, champagne

The Tequila Slammer (also known as a Tequila Boom Boom), is made with 1 ½ measures of tequila and 1 ½ measures of a clear fizzy drink in a tall glass leaving about a fifth of the glass empty. The drink gets its name from the way it is drunk; you place your hand over the top of the glass and then hit it down onto a hard surface causing the carbonated drink to fizz up and mix the recipe. This is gulped down quickly, with the intention of swallowing the gassy drink fast to cause quick intoxication.

A popular variation on this is to first place salt on your hand between your thumb and first finger; you then lick off the salt and bite into a slice of lime or lemon. This is followed by the traditional slamming of the tequila to mix the ingredients, and down in one.

When the tequila is mixed with champagne it is known as a Slammer Royale or a Golden Slammer. For a more potent combination you can combine tequila with champagne or white wine and lemonade in equal parts.

Tequila Slammers feature in modern culture; in John Woo’s film ‘Hard Boiled’, the lead character prepares a Slammer during the opening credits. The video game ‘Stranglehold’, the cartoon ‘Futurama’, the TV movie ‘Walking Shadow’ and the TV series ‘Spaced’ all have Tequila Slammers in them. The ultimate cinema Slammer is in ‘Point Break’ where Patrick Swayze, carrying a girl, licks the salt off her, eats the lime she is holding in her mouth and downs the Tequila.