Hot coffee, Irish whiskey and sugar under a float of cold, lightly whipped cream, drunk through the cream without stirring. The drink comes from the 1940s flying-boat base at Foynes and Shannon Airport in Ireland, where the chef Joe Sheridan is credited with it; San Francisco’s Buena Vista Cafe perfected the cream float in 1952.
The trick is the cream: whipped only until it thickens and pours, and the sugar in the coffee, which makes the coffee dense enough for the cream to float.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here for the Coffee Liqueurs, Irish Coffee and Coffee Cocktails page.
Ingredients
- 50 ml (1⅔ oz) Irish whiskey
- 120 ml (4 oz) hot, freshly brewed coffee, fairly strong
- 1 to 2 teaspoons brown sugar, or 2 sugar cubes
- 50 ml (1⅔ oz) cold heavy cream
Directions
- Warm a stemmed glass or heatproof goblet by filling it with hot water for a minute, then empty it.
- Whip the cream lightly, by hand or by shaking it in a jar, just until it thickens and leaves a trail but still pours. Do not whip to peaks.
- Put the sugar in the warm glass, pour in the hot coffee and stir until the sugar has dissolved, then stir in the whiskey.
- Hold a spoon upside down just above the surface and pour the cream slowly over its back so it floats in a layer about ¾ inch (2 cm) thick. Do not stir; drink the coffee through the cream.
Notes
Where this comes from The International Bartenders Association’s specification: 50 ml Irish whiskey, 120 ml hot coffee, 1 teaspoon sugar, 50 ml chilled fresh cream, the cream poured over the back of a spoon held just above the surface, in a pre-heated glass. The Buena Vista Cafe says its cream is aged 48 hours and frothed, and its glass is a 6-ounce heat-treated goblet; it uses two sugar cubes. Why the cream floats The sugar makes the coffee denser, so cream poured slowly over a spoon floats on it. Thick cream floats unwhipped, as in the IBA specification; lightly whipping it makes the float easier. Stiffly whipped cream sits in a lump. History In print at Shannon by 9 December 1945 (Washington’s Sunday Star, as “Irish or Gaelic coffee”). The “winter of 1943” night is the Foynes museum’s story; it cites no record. The photo An Irish coffee in a stemmed glass, 2010.