'A Little in the Middle' and advice on layered drinks

The layered drink seen here is the eponymous 'A Little in the Middle' which is layered from top to bottom:

- Smirnoff Green Apple Vodka

- Chambord (a dark raspberry liqueur)

- Amaretto (an almond liqueur)

(Drink recipe was invented by one Ariel Ranieri)

By heating up the Green Apple Vodka, we were able to successfully light this drink on fire!

In general, we had great success experimenting with layered drinks (making sure to check the densities of the alcohols involved to ensure that there was enough of a difference to maintain separate layers.

(Photo courtesy of Matthew Bloom, left to right: Amar Kelkar & Ariel Ranieri)

Given the lovely ring formation and color scheme, this next drink was named "Drops of Jupiter." It may be my favorite one of the whole lot that we mixed (top to bottom):

Grand Marnier (orange liqueur)

Pimms (...)

Orange Juice

Kahlua (Coffee)

Amaretto

General advice for inventing/mixing layered drinks and shooters:

1) Make them in a shot glass, or maybe an Old Fashioned Glass. I've seen some great ones in Sundae dishes, but keep in mind that you're hopefully trying to give them a taste of something delicious and mixing in smaller quantities allows your guests to taste something unusual, which also happens to be an attractive drink that you've concocted, so embrace minimalism. If they want more, you can show off your bartending skills by mixing them more of the same or something new!

2) Pour your shooter slowly, adding additional layers by pouring onto the back-side of a spoon that has its tip touching the wall of your serving apparatus (glass). If you pour too quickly, the layers could mix, ruining your layered design. It'll probably be pretty, but the symmetry of layers in a drink is quite lovely and unusual and you can always introduce some circular motion to your glass later on to watch the layers collapse if you so desire.

3) Utilize a list of liquor densities to determine how to organize the layers. In general, a heavy base, such as Amaretto is a personal favorite, but more generally, try to keep the liquors selected at distinct densities. I'm being intentionally vague because I haven't had any problems yet, but I've kept the densities around .01 g/ml apart. This site was recommended to me and has served me well thus far: http://www.goodcocktails.com/bartending/specific_gravity.php

4) Get creative. Seriously! If you have something cool in mind, try it out. If you want to make a layered drink with Mango Lassi, Crème de Menthe, Parrot Bay Mango Rum and Lime Juice (or Lime Vodka), you should do it! (Incidentally, I'm still waiting for my chance to try making the aforementioned layered drink. Let me know how it is if you try it!