Photo: Irish coffee (Nice) · All credits
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 270 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 270 ml line. Irish whiskey
- 720 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 720 ml line. Espresso - Strong black coffee, made with a filter or a pot - not an espresso shot
- 59 ml Jigger One large side (50 ml) of a standard jigger, plus about two teaspoons. Sugar - Brown sugar if you have it
- 180 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 180 ml line. Double cream - Chilled, and lightly whipped so it floats
- 6 pinches Nutmeg (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Sweeten hot coffee with sugar, add whiskey, then float cold cream on top.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 1.23 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Warm a stemmed heatproof glass with hot water and tip it out.
- Dissolve the sugar in the hot coffee in the glass, then stir in the whiskey.
- Whip the chilled cream lightly with a fork until it just thickens but still pours.
- Pour it over the back of a spoon onto the coffee so it sits in a thick layer on top, and grate a little nutmeg over it.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Irish Coffee
The story is that a chef called Joe Sheridan made these at Foynes airfield in County Limerick on a filthy winter night in the 1940s for a plane-load of passengers who had been turned back, and when one of them asked whether it was Brazilian coffee he said "no, that's Irish coffee". The glass got a stem because the airfield's crockery was thin and the passengers' hands were cold; it survived because it is genuinely the best way to drink one.
Getting it right
The cream has to float, and there is only one way to make it do that: it must be cold, lightly whipped rather than stiff, and poured slowly over the back of a spoon onto a properly sweet, hot coffee underneath. Sugar is not optional - it is what holds the cream up, and without it the two layers become one muddy drink. Do not stir it either; the pleasure is drinking the hot coffee through the cold cream.
Tasting notes
Hot, sweet and whiskey-warm underneath, with a cold, faintly nutty cap that meets you first. It is a drink for coming in from the rain, and for visitors who claim not to like cocktails.