16-MARCH-2011 In preparation for tomorrow’s St. Patrick’s Day, a day I generally don’t find acceptable to celebrate for its religious origins, I have compiled a few links of interest and easy recipes for “Irishing” your coffee. I’m all for celebrating and honoring the Irish and all those wonderful Celts. So let’s get to it!
By far, the simplest thing you can do is brew coffee as you normally would and add a shot of Irish whiskey to it. To make it creamy, switch (or add) Bailey’s Irish Cream which now comes in a variety of flavors like Caramel and Mint. You might not have realized that coffee drinks can get more complicated than two steps (brew coffee, add liquor). When you start bringing espresso, steamed milk and other ingredients into the mix, you get several steps but I’ve never found it to be not worth it.
I’m not a barista officially; I just have an espresso maker at home and do my best but I have never been good with the frothing part. The best froth usually comes from icy cold whole milk and I use Almond Breeze almond milk because I like it better and try to avoid as much animal product as possible. So if what you need are instructions on making the espresso and milk, then just hit up one of the millions of coffee sites.
A traditional Nutty Irishman is Baileys, Frangelico (hazelnut liquor) and cream. Here’s how I remix this mixed drink:
Amber’s Nutty Coffee
6 ounces of coffee
2 ounces of strong espresso
1 ounce of Baileys
1 ounce of Frangelico
A splash of Almond Breeze milk
* Generally, I don’t like my coffee too creamy so I will instead follow the recipe above but swap whiskey for the Baileys.
A recent visit to the QUIET MAN PUB in Dover, NJ introduced me to the best drink I’ve ever had in my life, the CHOCOLATE GUINNESS. Apparently people in Chicago are already familiar with this drink but it was the first time I had seen it and doesn’t seem to be a common request based on the next bar I visited where none of the staff had any idea how to make it (Marley’s Gotham Pub, I’m talking about you). The pouring is the important thing here as the liquor will look curdled if it’s done incorrectly.
Chocolate Guinness
Pour the Guinness appropriately into a pint glass
Add one shot of Creme de Cacao or Godiva chocolate liquor
There’s this fellow named Jim Slaughter who claims to have created the world’s best Irish Coffee. Perhaps he’s right, I’m not sure. It is however more than just a two-step process. He has his recipe posted at ineedcoffeee.com.
For now, I have to get back to finishing my Irish themed script for writers’ workshop! Happy Irish Month!
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model.