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Irish Coffee
"Only Irish Coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, fat." -- Alex Levine – Irish actor and musician
History
From 1939 to 1945 Joseph Sheridan was the head chef of a catering company based at the Shannon Airport (20 miles north of Limerick, Ireland). Joseph Sheridan was taxed with trying to find a suitable drink for passengers who had traveled for 18 hours by seaplane and then had to travel by boat to the terminal. Hot coffee and tea was obviously not enough to take the chill out of the passengers so Sheridan began to offer an alternative. His mix of Irish whiskey and coffee became known as Irish Coffee, and Joseph had secured his place in drink history.
To this day if you travel through Shannon Airport you will find the Sheridan Bar in the departures lounge, and a plaque that has been placed there in honor of Joseph's great warm libation. (And yes, they do serve his original Irish Coffee recipe.)
The original recipe as per Joseph Sheridan: "Cream as rich as an Irish brogue; coffee as strong as a friendly hand; sugar sweet as the tongue of a rogue; and whiskey smooth as the wit of the land."
Coming to America
In 1952 a columnist from the San Francisco Chronicle, Stanton Delaplane, enjoyed one of Joseph's Irish coffees and he immediately knew that this mix could be a big hit in another often cold and foggy city, San Francisco. A local bar, the Buena Vista, began to make them and after Stanton wrote about it in his paper, a new sensation had begun.
How big a sensation?
The Buena Vista, (or the BV as locals call it), is the birthplace of Irish Coffee in America and continues to be frequented by tourists and locals who enjoy their Irish Coffee.
- In the 50 years since it was introduced, the Buena Vista has served over 32 million Irish Coffees!
- The Buena Vista serves an average of 2,000 Irish Coffees a day.
- It is the largest single consumer of Irish whiskey in the U.S.
- The Buena Vista and its coffee has been a trivia question on Jeopardy!
Ironically, as the years went by, Stanton Delaplane ended up souring on the drink he helped popularize. "I can't stand the stuff anymore," he said once. He died in the spring of 1988 at the age of 80.
Is it worth the trip?
In our ongoing attempt to properly fact find, we can vouch for the Irish Coffee at Buena Vista. This mid-sized bar sits near the famous San Francisco Fisherman’s Wharf. Find a spot at one of the large round tables and enjoy meeting the wide mix of customers who stop by for a "coffee". Watch the bartenders line up rows of six-ounce heat-treated stemmed glass and fill them up and top them off with cream. A great experience.
Bar Tip
Most hot drinks are made in special "toddy" or hot drink glasses which are short-stemmed and heat-tested, but if you have to make a hot drink in a regular glass, first place a metal spoon in the glass. This will help conduct excess heat away from the glass, making it less likely that the glass will break.
Recipe
More than Irish coffee!
We have lots of warm drink ideas to heat up cold evening
