Easy Irish Coffee Recipe
Espresso
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Espresso
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Mark as brewed
Ingredients
Directions
Heat your glass with some boiling water, to keep the drink warm for longer (don’t forget to put a metal spoon in the glass when adding the boiling water to prevent the glass from cracking).
Place the brown sugar into the glass.
Add the coffee and the Irish whiskey.
Stir until the sugar is properly dissolved (checking the bottom of the glass to make sure there are no granules left at the bottom).
Whisk some cream in a bowl (don’t whisk the cream too stiffly or you won’t be able to pour it). Turn a spoon upside down and place the tip of the spoon inside the coffee glass just on top of the coffee in such a way that the edge of the spoon is touching the glass.
Slowly pour the whipped cream over the spoon: it should flow over the top of the spoon and land softly on top of the coffee (it ensures that the cream won’t sink into the coffee).
Find a cozy seat beside a warm fire on a winter’s day; sit back, relax and enjoy the Irish Coffee… and the moment.
Last tip: do not stir the Irish Coffee. Instead drink it properly, through the cream.
A little bit of history:
As it happens with many other cocktails, this creation is half history and half legend, but we know it all started in the early ‘40s on a dark and stormy night in Ireland.
Joe Sheridan was, at the time, the chef of the restaurant at the Foynes Airbase just outside of Limerick. One cold winter night, a Pan Am flight headed to New York was forced to turn back in the bad weather. When it pulled into the Foynes terminal, the cold and tired passengers disembarked, and it was in that exact moment that Sheridan mixed up the first round of Irish Coffees for the stranded passengers.
At that point, one surprised American asked, "Hey Buddy, is this Brazilian coffee?" and Joe, employing that famous Irish wit, answered "No, that's Irish Coffee."
It was Sheridan who later explained how to make a true Irish Coffee: just mix together cream (rich as an Irish brogue), coffee (strong as a friendly hand), sugar (sweet as the tongue of a rogue) and whiskey (smooth as the wit of the land) and you’ve got a proper Irish Coffee.
However, the truth is different: an authentic Irish coffee is not just a simple coffee spiked with a shot of whiskey, but it’s a carefully constructed coffee drink, and it should be prepared with the same care usually reserved for a cappuccino or a pour over.
About the author
I'm Tanya, originally from Italy but citizen of the world. I'm a specialty coffee barista (based in Portugal, at the moment) and a freelance writer (check out my articles on Barista Magazine!). Plus, I'm half of the team behind Coffee Insurrection, a website about specialty coffee with a focus on the community: I'm co-creator, SMM and content writer. I'm available for coffee consulting (both online and in house) and for writing work.
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