Irish coffee
Template:Short description Template:Use Irish English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Other uses Template:Infobox drink Irish coffee (Template:Langx) is a caffeinated alcoholic drink consisting of Irish whiskey, hot coffee and sugar, which has been stirred and topped with cream (sometimes cream liqueur). The coffee is drunk through the cream.
Origin
Different variations of coffee cocktails pre-date the now-classic Irish coffee by at least 100 years.
In 19th-century France, a mixture of coffee and spirits was called a gloria.
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Several places claim to have developed the modern recipe in the 1950s. One version is attributed to a Joe Sheridan, head chef at the restaurant and coffee shop in the Foynes Airbase<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> flying boat terminal (about Template:Convert from present-day Shannon Airport, County Clare).<ref name="auto">Template:Citation.</ref> In 1942 or 1943,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="archive.org">Template:Cite web</ref> he added whiskey to the coffee of some disembarking passengers.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref><ref name="auto"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, maintains he brought Irish coffee to the United States after drinking it at Shannon Airport. His version is that he worked with the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco to start serving it on November 10, 1952.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Sheridan later emigrated to work at the Buena Vista Cafe.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Preparation
Irish whiskey and at least one level teaspoon of sugar are poured over black coffee and stirred in until fully dissolved.<ref>Template:Cite web The sugar is essential for floating liquid cream on top</ref> Thick cream is carefully poured over the back of a spoon initially held just above the surface of the coffee and gradually raised a little until the entire layer is floated.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Variations
In 1988, the National Standards Authority of Ireland published Irish Standard I.S. 417: Irish Coffee. The standard has been cancelled at least as of 2020.Template:Efn
Although whiskey, coffee and cream are the basic ingredients in all Irish coffee, there are variations in preparation: the choice of coffee and the methods used for brewing it differ significantly. The use of espresso machines or fully automatic coffee brewers is now typical: the coffee is either a caffè americano (espresso diluted with hot water) or some kind of filter coffee, often made using a coffee capsule.
In Spain, Irish coffee (café irlandés) is sometimes served with a bottom layer of whiskey, a separate coffee layer, and a layer of cream on top;<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> special devices are sold for making it.
Some bars in Southeast Asia serve a cocktail of iced coffee and whiskey, sometimes without cream, under the name "Irish coffee".
Many drinks of hot coffee with a distilled spirit, and cream floated on top—liqueur coffees—are given names derived from Irish coffee, although the names are not standardised. Irish cream coffee (also known as Baileys coffee) can be considered a variant of Irish coffee, but involves the use of Irish cream as a "pre-mixed" substitute for the whisky, cream and sugar. Jamaican coffee would be expected to be made with rum; Highland coffee, also called Gaelic coffee, with Scotch whisky; Russian coffee with vodka;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Mexican coffee with tequila.
See also
- Liqueur coffee
- Rüdesheimer Kaffee
- List of coffee drinks
- List of hot beverages
- Caffeinated alcoholic drink