The Irish coffee is sweet, warming, and comforting. Quite simply, it involves adding a measure of your favorite Irish whiskey to your favorite coffee and adding cream and sugar.
You might think that the coffee would mask any recognizable notes coming from the whiskey. However, in my experience, careful choice of the whiskey you use in an Irish coffee can make a huge difference to the final product.
So, here are my recommendations for the best Irish whiskeys to use in your Irish coffee once the weather starts to cool.
How To Make An Irish Coffee
Ingredients:
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- 2oz of Irish whiskey.
- 4.5oz of hot coffee.
- 2oz of fresh cream (chilled).
- 1 tbsp or cube of brown sugar.
- An Irish Coffee Glass, or a tall glass of choice. Something with a handle.
Method:
- Brew your favorite coffee.
- Add your Irish whiskey of choice and some brown sugar (cubes or granules) to an Irish coffee glass.
- Add coffee and stir to incorporate the whiskey, sugar, and coffee.
- Add the chilled fresh cream to a cocktail shaker and shake — not for too long though as you’ll just end up with butter.
- Float this on top of your coffee mixture and there you go! Feel free to garnish with some grated nutmeg for an extra bit of depth.
Redbreast 12 Year Old, 40% ABV
BUY NOW: $47.99
Let’s start out with a classic whiskey for a classic cocktail. Redbreast 12 Year Old is a whiskey that most of us will know and love. A classic single pot still style of Irish whiskey that combines buttery texture, sweet fruit notes, and a little bit of welcome spice from the unmalted barley content in this liquid.
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The Redbreast 12 Year Old also happens to be in the best Irish coffee that I’ve ever had at Schofield’s in Manchester, UK. Their recipe also incorporates a little bit of honey to give it a richer feel and bigger depth. One serving of this whiskey in an Irish coffee and your life will change.
Glendalough Pot Still, 43% ABV
BUY NOW: $35.99
This distillery was founded in 2011, and very quickly became one to watch following the release of a 13-year-old whiskey that went to the top of everyone’s ‘must have’ list. However, I find that the best Glendalough whiskey for an Irish coffee is the Pot Still expression. This whiskey is ex-bourbon cask matured, with an Irish oak finish!
Distillers in Ireland have a little more freedom when it comes to wood. Whilst the majority of stocks are matured in oak (it has become something of an international standard), the Irish can choose to mature and finish their whiskeys in whichever casks they please.
The Irish oak finish on this provides such wonderful grape and cream notes. Adding this to your Irish coffee is going to provide more alcohol, but also a slightly drier, oakier, fruitier feel to the whole drink.
Bushmills 16 Year Old, 40% ABV
BUY NOW: $65.99
Okay, we’re getting a little expensive for this one. But there is a good reason for it.
Bushmills 10 Year Old would be a perfectly good choice for your Irish coffee. The Black Bush release would also work well. My argument for the 16 Year Old is: why not be a little bit fancy and get some serious age and multiple cask influences into your cocktails?
Matured in a combination of ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-port casks — Bushmills 16 Year Old is Christmastime in a glass when it’s served neat. Adding it to an Irish Coffee will bring out all of these stunning red fruit notes, date notes, raisins, milk chocolate, and all of the good stuff that simply adds to the indulgence of this cocktail.
Writers’ Tears Irish Whiskey, 40% ABV
BUY NOW: $33.99
We’ve spoken about Writers’ Tears on the website before and I will continue to in the future. It is an absolute bargain of a bottle, and very tasty to boot. This is the most different recommendation as a product for your cocktail as it leans heavily on tropical fruit notes, even more so than Redbreast does.
A combination of single malt and pot still whiskeys from The Walsh Distillery, this is one of the most mango-driven, apricot styles of whisky that I’ve ever tried.
Coffee is no stranger to a dominant fruit-driven style of aroma, but if you want to add a little tropical touch to your Irish coffee whilst still keeping it Irish on paper, look no further!
Teeling Single Grain, 46% ABV
BUY NOW: $30
Moving into a totally different style of Irish whiskey now: grain whiskey. This is a rather unusual one from the ever-fun-loving folks at Teeling in Dublin. A grain whiskey that is bottled at 46%, is the strongest whiskey on this list, and then the liquid is fully matured in Californian Cabernet Sauvignon casks. This is going to add all the sweetness that you wanted to your cocktail, but much like the Bushmills 16 mentioned above, this is going to give you those huge red fruit notes, treacle, brown sugar, and some spicy cereal tones right at the end.
A Brief History of Irish Coffee
Like almost any cocktail, there is a debate over where the Irish coffee originated. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that other countries and cultures were adding spirits to coffee decades before the Irish.
However, Irish coffee has, without doubt, become a modern classic. The most widely accepted story of its origins comes from Foynes Airbase in County Clare, close to what is now Shannon Airport. The story goes that, in the early 1940s, chef Joe Sheridan, who worked at the airbase, would add whiskey to coffee to warm up disembarking passengers.
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