Irish Coffee Recipe: 3 Irish Coffee Variations

Irish coffee is a cocktail featuring hot coffee, Irish whiskey, and sugar, topped with a layer of loosely whipped cream. It is traditionally served in an Irish coffee glass or Irish coffee mug and enjoyed as both a morning tipple—reserved for special occasions and holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day—and an after-dinner drink.

Irish coffee was invented in the 1940s by Joe Sheridan, a chef at the Foynes Port airbase in County Limerick, Ireland. Legend has it that Sheridan first served the concoction to a group of passengers on a particularly frigid evening to make up for a delayed flight. The drink became known as a Foynes specialty until American travel writer Stanton Delaplane brought it to a bartender’s attention at The Buena Vista Hotel in San Francisco. The bartender loved it so much that he traveled to Foynes to learn the proper technique from Sheridan himself.

A classic Irish coffee is typically made with Irish whiskey. To qualify as Irish whiskey, a spirit must be produced from malt, grain, and barley and distilled, aged in wooden casks for a minimum of three years, and bottled in Ireland. The more muted, malt character of Irish whiskey shines most when the spirit is aged in less conventional vessels like sherry casks or rum casks.

There are four main categories of Irish whiskey: Blended, single malt, single grain, and single pot still. The selection of whiskey in any cocktail can have a significant effect on the drink’s flavor profile. Even within certain styles, individual expressions might feature characteristics of other styles or other spirits altogether. When sourcing an Irish whiskey to use in Irish coffee, try using blended styles for their smooth, spicy warm undertones, which complement the bitter, roasted notes of the coffee. Since the coffee in this cocktail will dilute the whiskey, a relatively inexpensive option is sometimes the best bet.

Variations on Irish coffee take their cues from the provenance or style of the featured spirit.

1. 1. Irish cream coffee: This sweeter variation on Irish coffee features hot coffee and Irish cream liqueur, a blend of Irish whiskey, cream, and sugar.
   
2. 2. Highland coffee: Highland coffee features Scotch whisky as its primary spirit, lending the brewed coffee a smokier edge.
3. 3. Kentucky coffee: This Irish coffee variation features bourbon instead of whiskey.

The beauty of an Irish coffee is its simplicity—that means there’s plenty of room to experiment with the individual components to find the ratio and flavors you like best.

1. 1. Experiment with the cream’s consistency. The original Irish coffee recipe calls for lightly whipped cream. The consistency should be thick enough to be considered luscious and foamy but runny enough to float over the back of a spoon onto the top of the coffee. If you prefer a stiffer whipped cream—the kind you might find on hot chocolate, for example—that works, too.
   
2. 2. Picking the ideal sweetener. Most Irish coffee recipes will call for brown sugar to sweeten, but try using a combination of sugars and note how the expression of the whiskey in the coffee changes. Demerara sugar, or “raw” sugar, captures the floral essence of sugarcane, while brown sugar has a deeper, molasses character.
3. 3. Using espresso instead of brewed coffee. If you prefer a more concentrated coffee flavor, try substituting two espresso shots for the amount of brewed coffee, then dilute with hot water as needed.