The secret to a perfect Irish coffee
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It’s at this time of year, when my tank’s almost empty, that I start craving Irish coffee. Its comforting collision of hot, sweet caffeine, Irish whiskey and thick, cold cream is like being shot from a blazing cannon into the depths of a duck-down duvet.
The recipe was invented in the 1940s by the Irish chef Joe Sheridan as a livener for travellers arriving at Foynes airport in County Limerick, which was then a hub for transatlantic flight. By the 1950s the Irish coffee was one of America’s favourite cocktails, with the Buena Vista bar in San Francisco getting through 36 bottles of whiskey a day.
Bar 1661’s Classic Irish Coffee
Makes 1 serving
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190ml freshly brewed coffee (classic roast is best)
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15ml Demerara sugar syrup (to make: dissolve 2 cups of Demerara sugar in 1 cup of water over a low heat and bottle)
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30ml blended Irish whiskey
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Thickened double cream, to top
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Fresh nutmeg (optional, to garnish)
Fill a Georgian Irish coffee glass or small stemmed wine glass with hot water and leave to stand while you assemble your ingredients. Shake the cream in a protein shaker so it is thickened but still pourable and make the coffee. Empty the wine glass of water, add the hot coffee, sugar syrup and whiskey and mix briefly. Gently pour a finger-width layer of cream on top. Garnish with nutmeg, if you like.
An Irish coffee must, obviously, be made with Irish whiskey – Sean Muldoon, co-author of the definitive When Whiskey Met Its Match: How Irish Coffee Captivated The World, favours a lighter-style blend like Bushmills Original, sweetened with Demerara sugar syrup, made by dissolving two-parts sugar in one-part water over a low heat. “When you offer guests Irish coffee, some will decline,” says Muldoon. “They’ll inevitably change their minds once everyone else has theirs. So always have enough ingredients for everybody. You’ll need them.”
Muldoon used to be a co-owner of The Dead Rabbit bar in New York, which sold nearly 40,000 Irish coffees last year. The contrast in temperatures is crucial, says its beverage director Aidan Bowie. “It’s really, really important that the cream is cold.” To keep the coffee piping hot, warm the glass in advance by filling it with hot water. At The Dead Rabbit’s new outpost in Austin, Texas, they serve an Irish coffee more suited to the warmer climate, made with Teeling whiskey from Dublin, fortified with Mr Black Coffee Liqueur and blitzed with ice.
Dublin’s Bar 1661 is famous for its Irish coffee twists, which feature coffee-steeped Guinness, soda bread syrup, and the Irish spirit poitín. “The thing that really sets our Irish coffees apart, though, is our cream,” says owner David Mulligan. “The Irish stuff is silky and thick – there’s nothing else like it.” To get the perfect white head, he says, “shake it in a protein shaker to thicken it slightly. Then you can pour it on top without needing a spoon.” Some like a grating of nutmeg on top – others consider this sacrilege. At Da Costa in Bruton they serve it with smoked orange peel.
At Whiskey & Seaweed, the bar at London’s Core by Clare Smyth, you can “build” your Irish coffee from a choice of three whiskies, essences including black cardamom and vanilla, and toppings including long pepper and dark chocolate. Or just keep it classic. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
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