Irish Coffee

By Patrick Farrell

Irish Coffee
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
10 minutes
Rating
4(126)
Notes
Read community notes

For a holiday that has come to involve so much alcohol, St. Patrick’s Day is badly in need of a good drink. Beer, even tinted green, is too workaday. Stout is too stolid. Sweet liqueurs like Irish Mist and Baileys Irish Cream are just too everything. But Irish coffee is worth toasting: the boggy funk of whiskey rising through an equatorial brew to meet a cool cloud of whipped cream.

Featured in: Irish Coffee, American Ingenuity

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Ingredients

Yield:1 drink
  • 4ounces (½ cup) heavy cream, cold
  • 1teaspoon sugar
  • Vanilla extract, if desired
  • 1½ounces (3 tablespoons) Irish whiskey
  • 6ounces (Âľ cup) hot, fresh coffee
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (1 servings)

513 calories; 41 grams fat; 26 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 10 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 8 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 34 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Whip the heavy cream. Add ½ teaspoon sugar and a dash of vanilla, if desired, just before the cream starts to form soft peaks. Whip until firm.

  2. Step 2

    Pour the remaining ½ teaspoon sugar into a tall ceramic or glass mug.

  3. Step 3

    Add the whiskey, then pour in the coffee to about an inch below the brim.

  4. Step 4

    Apply a generous dollop of whipped cream to the top.

Tip
  • Adapted from James F. Farrell

Ratings

4 out of 5
126 user ratings
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Private Notes

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Cooking Notes

Martha

Oh no! Never top Irish coffee with whipped cream! Whisk heavy cream until a bit thickened, similar to creme chantilly. Then pour it gently down the back of a spoon onto the coffee so it floats on top.
The whole point is to have the coffee and the cream mingle together as one sips. Compare the two and you'll see what I mean.

Chandrashekhar

You are absolutely right. The bartenders in Dublin and Cork are thinking what monstrosity is being described here in the guise of "their" coffee!
Irish coffee is served in a transparent mug. It should ideally look like freshly poured Guiness...mmmm

Taylor

I learned to make an Irish coffee at the Flying Boat museum in Limerick, where the drink was originally invented, and this is ALL WRONG. You should pour your whiskey (they insisted Powers was the only way to go) and dissolve a teaspoon of brown sugar into it. Pour hot, fresh coffee over that. As others have stated, the cream should NOT be whipped -- just thickened enough that it'll float on the coffee when poured over the back of a spoon. Savor, drinking the coffee through the cream.

Eric

Irish Coffee can ONLY be made with double cream (50-60% fat) and NEVER with any form of whipped cream. The very cold cream is poured over a spoon on to the coffee and sits on top without blending. The exquisite taste of the warm coffee/whisky hitting your mouth whilst the cold cream touches your lips is unmatched and almost orgasmic.

counsel9

No vanilla or sugar in the cream. The coffee must be boiling hot so that the sugar dissolves completely. Can’t stress this enough. The cream should be sitting in top. US Cream needs to be whipped slightly and poured down the back of a cold dessert spoon. Contrary to another poster, the boiling hot coffee/whiskey is sipped through the cold layer of cream. Paddy or Jameson’s whiskey. Bushmills is a little too sharp for Irish coffee (perfectly fine on the rocks).

Eileen

This is how it's done at the Buena Vista in San Fransisco. They claim to have invented Irish Coffee.

Kevin

Even the Buena Vista site only claims to have attempted to "...re-create a highly touted "Irish Coffee" served at Shannon Airport in Ireland." This was in 1952. The Foynes Irish Coffee dates from 1943. The Foynes recipe, of inventor Chef Joe Sheridan, does call for lightly whipping the cream. But nothing so far as "...until firm."

Peter C.

If you are worried about the sugar not dissolving completely, you could just use a Demerara simple syrup like the recipe from Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in NYC. About 3/4 oz of 1:1 syrup would do it for 6 oz of coffee and 1 1/2 oz of Irish whiskey.

Suzannetld

I make it with brown sugar, whiskey , coffee then the whip cream, drizzle Irish mist over it and sprinkle brown sugar . At times, I add Irish mist to the whipping cream!! Slainte !

sharon

This may seem odd but the secret ingredient for my Irish coffee is instant coffee, either decaf or caffeinated. It’s consistent, doesn’t have a burnt or harsh flavor of some gourmet coffees and it’s very convenient. I also agree with other commenters on using the back of a spoon with a light cream.

Kim

I've made Irish coffee for years with the cream floated on the top. I decided to try this, and as others have said, this was not nearly as good. And I agree that Powers is the way to go, along with brown sugar (and more of it than called for here; closer to a tablespoon or more.)

Wendy

While in Ireland we drank Irish Coffee once a day. They started with a tsp of brown sugar, a jigger of Jameson, they stirred to dissolve sugar. They then added the coffee and topped with a heaping spoon of homemade whipped cream. Is it any wonder I had a cup daily!

Peter C.

If you are worried about the sugar not dissolving completely, you could just use a Demerara simple syrup like the recipe from Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog in NYC. About 3/4 oz of 1:1 syrup would do it for 6 oz of coffee and 1 1/2 oz of Irish whiskey.

counsel9

No vanilla or sugar in the cream. The coffee must be boiling hot so that the sugar dissolves completely. Can’t stress this enough. The cream should be sitting in top. US Cream needs to be whipped slightly and poured down the back of a cold dessert spoon. Contrary to another poster, the boiling hot coffee/whiskey is sipped through the cold layer of cream. Paddy or Jameson’s whiskey. Bushmills is a little too sharp for Irish coffee (perfectly fine on the rocks).

Taylor

I learned to make an Irish coffee at the Flying Boat museum in Limerick, where the drink was originally invented, and this is ALL WRONG. You should pour your whiskey (they insisted Powers was the only way to go) and dissolve a teaspoon of brown sugar into it. Pour hot, fresh coffee over that. As others have stated, the cream should NOT be whipped -- just thickened enough that it'll float on the coffee when poured over the back of a spoon. Savor, drinking the coffee through the cream.

Susanamantha

This isn't my favorite Irish Whiskey recipe, but I'm sure it'll do in a pinch. Unlike Mel's elitist reference to those of us in the Midwest, I have no knick knack shelf of Irish Coffee Mugs. But if I did, I would be proud of it.

Eric

Irish Coffee can ONLY be made with double cream (50-60% fat) and NEVER with any form of whipped cream. The very cold cream is poured over a spoon on to the coffee and sits on top without blending. The exquisite taste of the warm coffee/whisky hitting your mouth whilst the cold cream touches your lips is unmatched and almost orgasmic.

faith

oooh no, not whipped cream. I have made many Irish coffees when I work in a pub in England. First the whiskey, then the coffee, add the sugar. Then slowly pour whipping cream over the bottom of a teaspoon (the curved part) slowly does it. :D

Mel

This is clearly made for a chi-chi restaurant (not a bar) where the cost of the drink includes a souvenir cup… to put on a midwestern knick-knack shelf… "faith" is on-target… many nights of drinking at Pipin's Pub in Bay Ridge gives the best… yes… I challenge anyone to stand me to drinks… recipe… brown sugar first… rest of this is OK… got me across the bridge to Staten Island many times.

Eva Santos-Phillips

Quite tasty. It is coffee and dessert in one cup.

Martha

Oh no! Never top Irish coffee with whipped cream! Whisk heavy cream until a bit thickened, similar to creme chantilly. Then pour it gently down the back of a spoon onto the coffee so it floats on top.
The whole point is to have the coffee and the cream mingle together as one sips. Compare the two and you'll see what I mean.

Chandrashekhar

You are absolutely right. The bartenders in Dublin and Cork are thinking what monstrosity is being described here in the guise of "their" coffee!
Irish coffee is served in a transparent mug. It should ideally look like freshly poured Guiness...mmmm

Eileen

This is how it's done at the Buena Vista in San Fransisco. They claim to have invented Irish Coffee.

Kevin

Even the Buena Vista site only claims to have attempted to "...re-create a highly touted "Irish Coffee" served at Shannon Airport in Ireland." This was in 1952. The Foynes Irish Coffee dates from 1943. The Foynes recipe, of inventor Chef Joe Sheridan, does call for lightly whipping the cream. But nothing so far as "...until firm."

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