No, Irish coffee is not a good old drink, with a cup of which it would be so customary to sit by the fireplace on cold evenings or in the company of friends for pleasant conversations in a cozy pub. In fact, this is a cocktail, and it appeared during the Second World War at the dawn of the transatlantic flights, when air passengers, for eighteen hours flying on a seaplane (called a “flying boat”) from America to Europe and back, stopped at the port of Foynes (county Limerick).
From the plane they transferred to the boat and already in it reached the seaplane terminal, which was the predecessor of the Shannon airport. By 1942, when a restaurant was founded there for travelers staying in Ireland, many celebrities had visited it, including Humphrey Bogart, Douglas Fairbanks, Edward Goldenberg Robinson,
Ernest Hemingway and
Eleanor Roosevelt.Irish coffee is the invention of Joe Sheridan, who worked as a chef in a restaurant. This drink was welcomed at the restaurant by passengers who were most often met in Ireland by cold, damp and windy weather. Indeed, a cup of hot coffee or tea was greatly appreciated by people upon arrival.
One story tells us that Brendan O'Regan, who was the food manager, asked Joseph Sheridan to come up with something stronger. According to another version, the idea belonged entirely to Joe Sheridan. Be that as it may, the result is that today is well known to all. When passengers from a plane flying from Botwood-on-Newfoundland to America with a stop in Foynes drank a drink in a restaurant on a cold winter evening, they asked if it was Brazilian coffee. Joe Sheridan, who added whiskey to him to help warm people warm up faster, replied: “No, this is Irish coffee.”
I must say that today Shannon Airport often tries to claim the invention, it even has a memorial plaque in honor of the cocktail. Joe Sheridan is recognized for having named Irish coffee liquor, which is sold at the duty free store of Shannon Airport. The store, by the way, is also called Sheridan.
Of course, over the years, different versions of the drink were invented. By the time the Shannon Airport opened (in 1945), Sheridan had perfected the cocktail recipe, which many, many travelers enjoyed with great pleasure in the airport restaurant. One of the visitors was Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer from San Francisco who had long and carefully studied the recipe for delicious Irish coffee. In 1952, it was first tasted in America after a cocktail appeared at the Buena Vista Cafe, where Stanton Delaplane was invited to work.
According to the original recipe,
whipped cream is not added to the cocktail
, but only those that have stood for 48 hours. This is one of the main secrets - cream must float on top of coffee and it is the 48-hour clock that will not sink. The second secret - do not shake the cocktail. Although today it is often cooked with whipped cream, but this is wrong.
In order to make real coffee in Irish, the following components will be required:
- one measure of Irish whiskey;
- one measure of strong black coffee;
- 2 teaspoons of sugar (or 3 pieces of refined sugar);
- 2 teaspoons of thick cream.
Cooking:
- Heat a whiskey glass.
- Pour Irish whiskey into it.
- Add sugar.
- Pour in black coffee and gently stir the drink.
- Add cream by pouring them on the back of a spoon.
After the cream is added, the cocktail is no longer stirred. The true flavor of Irish coffee comes when you drink coffee and whiskey through cream.
When preparing his recipe, Joe Sheridan used freshly roasted coffee from Colombia.