Hot coffee sweetened and laced with Irish whiskey, topped with a thick float of lightly whipped cream poured over the back of a spoon so it sits in a cool collar above the warm drink. Sipped through the cream, never stirred.
Generally attributed to chef Joe Sheridan, who in the winter of 1943 served whiskey-laced coffee to cold transatlantic passengers at the Foynes flying-boat terminal in County Limerick; the drink carried over when Foynes's air traffic moved to Shannon Airport. In 1952 a San Francisco Chronicle travel writer who had tasted it at Shannon worked with the owner of San Francisco's Buena Vista Cafe to recreate it, and the Buena Vista popularised it across the US and beyond.
The pleasure is in the contrast: hot, bittersweet whiskey-laced coffee drawn up through a cool, barely-sweet collar of cream. The whiskey warms the chest while the cream softens its edge, and the sugar ties it together. Best on a cold night, never stirred.
Whipping the cream just enough lowers its density so it floats on the denser, sugared coffee instead of sinking. Pouring it over a spoon spreads the flow gently to keep the layers separate, letting the hot drink come up through the cool cream.
Variations
Sweetened with demerara or simple syrup, made with cold brew, or topped with grated nutmeg
On the Palate
Where Irish Coffee sits in the Irish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 1How it's made
8 steps · 5 min
- 11 min
Warm a stemmed glass by rinsing it with hot water, then empty it.
- 21 min
Add a spoonful or two of brown sugar to the glass.
- 31 min
Pour in a measure of Irish whiskey.
- 41 min
Top up with hot, freshly brewed strong coffee, leaving room at the top.
- 51 min
Stir until the sugar fully dissolves.
Watch outStir until every grain of sugar dissolves before you float the cream — any left undissolved and the cream won't sit clean on top.
- 62 min
Lightly whip the cream so it just thickens but still pours.
Watch outWhip the cream only to loosely thickened so it still just pours — over-whip it stiff and it sinks and clumps instead of floating.
- 71 min
Float the cream gently over the back of a warm spoon onto the coffee.
Watch outPour the cream slowly over the back of a warm spoon so it spreads and settles as a clean layer on the coffee, not a plunge that mixes in.
- 81 min
Serve at once, sipped through the cream layer without stirring.
