National Irish Coffee Day

jules / stone soup [CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]

January 25th is National Irish Coffee Day in the United States.

Technically a type of cocktail, Irish Coffee is one of a range of coffee and liqueur drinks. The drink first named Irish Coffee was invented in the 1940s, but similar drinks predate it by at least 100 years.

The drink is made from 2 parts of Irish whiskey (Irish whiskey is usually distilled three times, whilst Scotch whiskey is usually only distilled twice) to 4 parts hot coffee to 1.5 parts fresh cream and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar. Everything except the cream is heated together and then poured into an Irish coffee mug, which is then topped with the cream and served hot. If served in a glass, the finished drink does not look that dissimilar to another famous Irish drink; Guinness, the most well-known Irish stout.

Irish Coffee is one of a range of liqueur coffees in which distilled spirits are added to coffee. These other drinks are believed to be derived from this.