We’re going to start with the classic Irish coffee and then go on to explore some of the other commonly found alternatives.
The origins of Irish Coffee are hotly debated, 19th century Vienna, Germany, Denmark and France all make a claim to cream topped coffee liqueurs. Wikipedia has a very good article on the history of Irish Coffee.
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 flying boat terminal building, County Limerick. In 1942 or 1943 he added whiskey to the coffee of some disembarking passengers.
We’ve all been to a restaurant or pub and after the meal been offered an Irish Coffee, it’s almost traditional. We’ve trawled the web and after extensive testing found the best recipes out there, which we’ve tweaked to make it very easy to make at home.
All of the recipes insist on a good, strong coffee. All of the recipes recommend Jamesons Irish Whiskey and most recommend demerara sugar although some say white sugar or a white/demerara blend is permissible. Coffee to whisky ratios are varied, you’ll need to make your own adjustments to suit your palate but a good starting point would be 20% whiskey to 80% coffee.
Irish (and American) whiskey has an e, Scotch (and Canadian) doesn’t.
Ingredients:
- Good strong coffee is best although at a pinch you could use a teaspoon of instant, just don’t tell your guests.
- 50ml Jameson Irish Whiskey
- 2 teaspoons of demerara sugar
- 50ml double cream
Method:
- Put 50ml of Irish Whiskey in your milk frother with the sugar and coffee. If you’ve used instant top up the liquid level with water to the max mark.
- Press the start button and wait until it finishes.
- Meanwhile, heat up the glass using hot water from your kettle.
- When your milk frother has finished, empty the water out of the glass and fill with your Irish Coffee mixture. Pour double cream over a hot teaspoon and try to float the cream on the top of the coffee.
- If it’s not quite to your taste, experiment. Does it need more or less coffee, whiskey or sugar? You be the judge.
Alternatives:
Basically the same recipe as above but replace the Jameson Irish Whiskey with the appropriate spirit
- Highland Coffee – Scotch Whisky
- French Coffee – Brandy or Armagnac
- Russian Coffee – Vodka
- Spanish Coffee – Spanish Brandy
- American Coffee – Bourbon
- Cafe Normandie – Calvados
- Calypso Coffee – Tia Maria
- Monte Christo – Kahlua & Grand Marnier
- Caribbean Coffee – White Rum
- Canadian Coffee – Canadian Club Whisky
- Sorrento Cafe – Limoncello & Grand Marnier
- Scandanavian Coffee – Aquavit
- Dutch Coffee – Genever
- Belgian Coffee – Elixir d’Anvers
- German Coffee – Kirsch
- Italian Coffee – Strega
- Mexican Coffee – Kahlua
There are as many alternatives as there are spirits and liqueurs. Think Schnapps, Amaretto, Tequila, Ameretto, Kirsch…