Happy memories, it used to be a Christmas treat in my family many years ago. You used to be able to buy a bottle of Jamesons Irish Coffee. You added hot water & floated the cream on top with the back of a spoon (my dads job), we even had the special glasses. Just the thing for a cold day.
I am not a whiskey fan, so I am not a fan of traditional Irish coffee. On the other hand, I definitely enjoy coffee, Bailey's and a touch of whipped cream on occasion.
How strange ... it was only a few days ago I thought about Irish Coffee (and its variants) ... trying to recall when they fell out of fashion. Perhaps they haven't but it is not something I can recall seeing - even on a menu - for a number of years.
We took to them back in the late 1970s ~ 1980s - in particular, my mother became proficient in serving one with the cream perfectly separated; I was never that precise. I think I read that you had to have sugar in order for the cream to rest and not mix and I stopped taking sugar.
Now I just drink the whisky/whiskey somewhat more than coffee (though I do like Espresso, especially when in France and Italy). I even like Bourbon/sour mash
Funny enough it's officially an American invention, supposedly for the old 1930s transatlantic airline passengers, back in the day when they arrived in Ireland as last hop on the journey, and were frozen solid in those old depressurised rattlers.
But I'm sure the idea of putting cream and coffee in whiskey has to have been done by SOMEBODY Irish on a whim long before.
Never forget that Irish whiskey has an 'e' in there whereas Scotch doesn't.
Speaking of whiskey, the Irish Coffee that I drank was laced with Jameson and it was fine. Nice, actually. Can anyone recommend any other brands?
'Old Bushmills' is good.
There's this little inn called 'The Thatch' in a place called Broughshane in Co. Antrim, that was until recently the only bar in Ireland with a licence to distil. They make a wonderful blend called 'The Podhreen Mare' but I dunno how easy it is to get off the island:
Bushmills I've seen. I've found the whiskey pickings slim around here, but I'll keep looking.
I make a variation of Irish Coffee using the five-star dark Haitian Rhum Barbancourt. It's a different flavor of course; heavier but the flavor of the rum itself is also good enough for straight sipping.
I love it. I don't drink it often, because then it would lose its sense of occasion. But when you have one once in a while, it hits the spot quite like nothing else.
You pretty much need a tot of something to make coffee drinkable. The whipped cream helps, too
I'd wager that the blend of coffee *and* whiskey must be a potable nightmare for some FSMers. I can, however, picture a lot of people here topping a Coke or a Red Bull with whipped cream.
