On a dark and tempestuous Nox in the 1940s , the Irish Coffee was born . That is , if you consider its glamourous origin narration .
In the nascent solar day of transatlantic flight of steps , rider would board a hydroplane — also known as a flying gravy boat — for an 18 - hour journeying . The Port of Foynes in County Limerick was one of the hubs for these early flights . By 1943 , Brendan O’Regan hadopened a restaurantat the hydroplane bag to receive weary travelers . In unsound weather , rider were offered coffee and Camellia sinensis as soon as they got off of the plane .
As the story go , a flight take off from Ireland that winter but hit some spoiled conditions . It wrench around and touched down again at Foynes almost 10 60 minutes later . The stave had been apprize , and they greeted the weary traveller with food and hot beverages . To tranquilize their nerves and warm them , chef Joe Sheridan transfix their coffee tree with Irish whisky .
For the next few weeks , Sheridan experimented with the Irish Coffee recipe . Once it was double-dyed , he presented it to the psyche of catering . Although coffee cocktails had been around for about a century , this affair marked the birth of the first truly popular deep brown cocktail .
With diachronic shape like Eleanor Roosevelt , Ernest Hemingway , and Humphrey Bogart come through the Port of Foynes , the deglutition ’s renown spread . An American travel author who had visited Sheridan ’s bar implore Jack Koeppler , the possessor of San Francisco ’s Buena Vista Café , to proffer the crapulence . Koeppler did , in 1952 , and the Buena Vista Café can vaunt thefirst Irish Coffee in America .
Even if this fib is n’t entirely true , a lot of the detail are . It ’s in the correct piazza and prison term and has the right characters . There is only one well - known news report of why Joe Sheridan create it , and only one surviving story about its name .
HIT THE LAB
Irish CoffeeAdapted from the original Irish Coffee formula .
2 oz whiskey5 - 6 oz coffee2 tsp brown sugarHeavy pick
pelt simmering water into a stemmed , wide - mouthed coffee mug to heat . Once you ’re ready to mix , dump out the water . tot the sugar and whiskey to the glass with about an inch of coffee berry . conjure up to combine . Fill with coffee up to about one in below the rim . Top with a thick level of lightly whipped emollient or pour the pick over the back of a spoonful .
