To begin with: I personally don't like anything in my coffee (except for loads of sugar), but when somebody has a good Irish-whisky, and he explains to me that I really should try it with some fine coffee... I would eagerly except... (a bit like the grape/wine-farmers in France who drink wine as if it was water, and when you ask them to put some water with the wine for the kids, shouts: No! that's an insult. But you may add some wine to your water to improve it...)
Some highlights in the article:
(1940s):
'...In the days before bidget airlines, or even decent runways, flying boats, the huge dinosaurs of the aviation world, criss-corssed the Atlantic, pushing man and machine to the limit.
These were not simply flights. In the middle of the second world war, these were epic adventures where everyone looked like bogart and Bacall.
It paid to look cool, as by the time your New York flight splashed down on the calm waves of Foynes on the West coast of Ireland, your small intestine was probably in your Fedora.
... This meant that the trans-Atlantic crossing could take a bum-numbing 20 hours. As a result it's just as well these flying boats featured full length beds, staterooms and prper dining tables.
So there was nothing strange that winters'evening in 1943, when five hours out of Foynes, a New York bound plane, battered by the elements, turned back towards Ireland.
There was also nothing unusual in its tired assengers then climbing into a motor launch to be bumped over rough waves to an open dock.
And as they ran towards the terminal building, there was nothing peculiar in the cold, miserable dark Irish rain... but what greeted them inside was distinctly unique.
To this day no one knows what possessed chef Joe Sheridan to put coffee, sugar, whiskey and cream into a glass and serve it to the perished passengers.
But the combination of tired damp travellers with the four essential food groups of sugar, dairy, caffeine and alcohol, did the trick.
'Hey Buddy' an American is reported to have said, 'is this Brazilian coffee?'
'No' said Joe, 'that's Irish Coffee' Or so the legend goes...
... (the Irish-coffee spread no futher than across the estuary to a new bar...)...
... On one evening the three friends ( Delaplane, Jack Koeppler and George Freeberg) sat up all night experimenting, trying to crack the taste and the look of Sheridan's creation.
By all accounts the session was quite heated, and Delaplane nearly died on the way home when, exhausted by his efforts, he collapsed on the cable car tracks outside.
But they had it cracked:
'The whole world is going to drink Irish coffee' Koeppler is reported to have said.
'This drink is for the gods'.
This was a real boost to the ailing Irish shiskey industry, helping some of the smaller distilleries such as Kilbegaan and Tullamore fight off closure for a few years. Even John Jameson climbed aboard the craze, sending literally shiploads of whiskey across the Atlantic.
But with Irish coffee came two further problems. The first was cream.
The BV had a hard time finding enough heavy cream ... After extensive research in to the subject, he discovered that when cream was aged for 48 hours and frothed to a precise consistency, it would float and not sink.
The other problem that came with Irish coffee was more enduring. When American GIs left post Martial Aid Europe, they did so carrying bottles of Scotch under their arms, while in the States, 'Irish' became synonymous with coffee, not whiskey.
'Irish had been tainted by the sugar, swamped by the cram and drowned by the coffee. Mortally wounded it wouldn't be till the 1990s that Irish whiskey would finally fully distance itself from Joe Sheridan's Trojan horse.
As for Delaplane? The drink he made famous took over his life.
'I can't stand the stuff anymore' he said before passing away in 1988 at the age of 80.
... Anyone for French Coffee (brandy (Grand Marnier in the Netherlands)) Jamaican Coffee (rum) even the very dubious Gaelic Coffee (Scotch)? Best to stick to the original and as long as the whiskey you use is Irish, the brand is not critical.
The original Irish Coffee would have used pure pot still whiskey.
... Personally I prefer edgier (cheaper) blends, where grain whiskey is really good at cutting through the sugar an cream.
In the States Brennan's is ideal, in Europe for perfect Irish coffee pick any supermarket own-label Irish ...
... Use double (or whipping cream), never the dreadful stuff that squirts out of a nozzle, whip it hardish and pour it onto the coffee over the back of a spoon.
Then sit back and enjoy...'
Re-reading this as typing, I noticed there is a lot info about the whisk(e)y used, but nothing about the coffee... This makes me thinking... what would be the best coffee for an Irish coffee...?
Certainly no espresso, so: French press, Filter dripp, Vac-pot..?
Michel (btw, did I post this in the right forum?)
