Doing It the Irish Way
Getting it right with the irish coffee is more complicated than you thought.
The conversations about the irish coffee are highly uninformed. The laymen assume it to be a simple concoction of coffee and alcohol whereas it is much more than that. It requires the perfect combination of strong coffee, irish whiskey and the most important ingredient -- whipped cream.
Invented in 1943, the irish coffee was the brainchild of Chef Joe Sheridan who just wanted to sooth the passengers stranded in the chilly winters at Foynes Airbase. The airbase used to be a stop for passengers travelling on longer flights. As the weather in the region often led to night-long stays, the restaurants in the area provided hospitality to dignified passengers. Soon after the second world war, a travel writer named Stanton Delaplane introduced the United States of America to the irish delicacy and it spread like wildfire around the world.
According to Sheridan, a proper irish coffee should have cream as rich as an Irish brogue, coffee as strong as a friendly hand, sugar as sweet as the tongue of a rogue and the whiskey as smooth as the wit of the land. No wonder the poetic combination is so hard to get. After a bit of looking around, we finally came across the authentic recipe.
Ingredients
- Hot coffee:4 ounces (strong & rich)
- Irish Whiskey: 1 and 1/2 ounce
- Brown sugar: 2 teaspoons
- lightly whipped double cream: 1 ounce
How to make :Pour the sugar then coffee into a warm,mug or other heat-proof glass. Stir until dissolved then add the Irish whiskey and stir again.Float the cream on top by pouring it over the back of a spoon.Do not stir again.
Tip: Using the best ground coffee beans is most essential. Remember the coffee is hot before you begin making the concoction.
From the October 2020 issue of FHM India.
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