Perfect your Irish Coffee with these expert recipes

It seems obvious now: the best winter drink should always be hot coffee and whiskey in some form.

But Irish Coffee is a relatively young drink. A quick recap: this veritable winter drink began in 1942 at Foynes Airport in Ireland’s mid-west, where a seaplane en route from New York to Rome suffered engine trouble and landed. An airport chef, Joe Sheridan, made a hot drink from coffee, cream, Irish whiskey, and sugar. One passenger, Stanton Delaplane, a San Francisco newspaper writer, became obsessed with this “Gaelic coffee” and his passion eventually led to the drink recreation at the Buena Vista Cafe ten years later.

“The Buena Vista started serving Irish Coffees in 1952 and now makes an average of 2,000 Irish Coffees a day,” explains Tim Herlihy, co-founder of Lost Irish (an Irish whiskey that is made from casks sourced from six continents and distilled three times using all three whiskey production styles.) and co-author of From Barley to Blarney: A Whiskey Lover’s Guide to Ireland with NYC’s celebrated team at Irish pub The Dead Rabbit. “It has become an icon for Ireland’s favorite cocktail.”

(Herlihy, The Dead Rabbit and Buena Vista Cafe are all coming together to showcase Irish Coffee and other Irish whiskey/coffee drinks like The Frozen Irish and Irish Whiskey Espresso Martini this Wednesday — National Irish Coffee Day — at a themed pop-up in The Dead Rabbit. You can get tickets here.)

So that’s for New Yorkers. If you’re in San Francisco, stop by Buena Vista to try their iconic version of the cocktail. “The Buena Vista isn’t just known for its Irish Coffee, it’s also known for its bar theater and showmanship,” says Herlihy (who, speaking of showmanship, actually holds a world record for making the largest Irish Coffee ever at 234 gallons) . “The first time I went to the Buena Vista, bartender Larry quickly made a dozen Irish Coffees at a time. Larry was both a talented bartender and a talented magician, entertaining guests with a series of magic tricks between serving Irish Coffee. A belter of an Irish Coffee and an iconic must see bar.”

Below are a few recipes for Irish Coffee – one from Herlihy, one I tried in Ireland in December and loved at the Teeling distillery, a unique American/Irish take on the Minnesota drink The keeper’s heart and a non-alcoholic version of Kate Wise op Hotel Vermont. Also if you want to hack the recipe, that’s it quite easy to change.