The Cold War Is Responsible For Creating a Minnesota Bar Favorite

I’ve lived in Minnesota for nearly 20 years, and I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I just learned what a "snit" is.

Like many of life's most important lessons, I learned this one while sitting on a barstool at a local watering hole. As it turns out, snits are uniquely Minnesotan. They were born right here back in the 1950s, and I’ve probably enjoyed hundreds of them over the years without ever knowing their official name or the fascinating backstory.

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I Was Today Years Old When I Learned What a Minnesota ‘Snit’ Is

I had just ordered a Bloody Mary when the bartender looked at me and asked, "Wanna snit with that?"

Huh? What?

He must have seen the total confusion blanketing my face because he quickly started rattling off domestic beer options. Oh! A snit is a chaser.

I laughed and told him I’d never heard that term before. A guy sitting a few stools down piped up and we chatted for a bit about how most of the country doesn't even offer a sidecar of beer with a Bloody Mary.

The Cold War Is Responsible For Minnesota Snits

There are several theories online about the origins of snits, but the most popular one traces back to the 1950s and the Cold War era when the United States was dealing with a massive vodka shortage.

Vodka is the key ingredient of a Bloody Mary, so resourceful Minnesota bartenders had to pivot. Their solution? Substitute the missing vodka with local beer.

The Bloody Mary mix only needed about 7 to 9 ounces of beer which  left 3 to 5 ounces of unused beer in the can. And, nobody was about to let good beer go to waste. '

So, bartenders started dumping that extra few ounces into a tiny side glass and serving it with the cocktail. Eventually, the vodka shortage ended and the liquor came back, but the "bonus beer" stuck.

FYI, the word "snit" likely comes from the German word Schnitt, which literally means "a cut" or "a slice." In old German pub culture, people would order one last beer before heading out and often times ask for a half-filled glass of beer which is called a Schnitt.