The origins of Sorrento Cafe and it’s variants 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 (or a variation on that theme), it’s almost traditional. We’ve trawled the web and after extensive testing found the best recipes out there, now we’ve tweaked to make it very easy to make at home.
All of the recipes insist on a good, strong coffee, most recommend demerara sugar although some say white sugar or a white/demerara blend is permissible. Coffee to spirit ratios are varied, you’ll need to make your own adjustments to suit your palate but a good starting point would be 20% spirit 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.
- 25ml Limoncello
- 25ml Grand Marnier
- 2 teaspoons of demerara sugar
- 50ml double cream
Method:
- Put the limoncello and Grand Marnier 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 Sorrento Cafe 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, limoncello, Grand Marnier or sugar? You be the judge.
Alternatives:
Basically the same recipe as above but replace the limoncello and Grand Marnier with the appropriate spirit
- Irish Coffee – Jameson Irish Whiskey
- French Coffee – Brandy or Armagnac
- Highland Coffee – Scotch Whisky
- 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…