It’s St. Patrick’s Day, and you’ve imbibed your customary pint or three (or four or five) of Guinness and now you’re settled in at the bar, waiting for your designated driver to shuttle your tipsy self safely home. Good for you! Why not reward yourself with an Irish Coffee?

Now you may have experienced a sad, pale imitation of Irish Coffee1, be it enthroned in a place of honor at your local Irish pub, or found only far down the menu at your local bar… a cuppa joe, a jigger of whiskey, and a towering pile of whipped cream with — saints preserve us — a cherry on top. So, on second thought, maybe it’s better to wait till you’re safely returned to your own kitchen, where you can brew up an Irish Coffee that’s worth the wait.

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Notes and Links

  1. There’s a bit of an historical kerfuffle over where Irish Coffee first landed in the United States. The Buena Vista Cafe, at the foot of the Powell & Hyde Street cable car line in San Francisco makes a good claim. So does Tom Bergin’s Tavern in Los Angeles. The original mixmaster, however, was Joseph Sheridan, chef at the seaport of Foynes, in County Limerick, Ireland. Foynes served as the port of call for flying boat service in the 1930s, and Joe took to welcoming chilled and weary airline passengers with hot coffee spiked with a slug of Irish Whiskey. We can well imagine this made Joe a popular guy. ↩

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