While it doesn’t hold a candle to temperatures back home in Montana and other parts of the country, the weather has been unseasonably cold here in Western Washington. It hit 18 this morning and we won’t break 32 according to the forecasters, yielding yet another burst of daytime cold that has about ground life to a halt in the neighborhood.
Ed informed me yesterday that it’s been so damn cold he hasn’t left his home in Bozeman for days now and he’s perfected the cream pour onto the top of his Irish Coffee, so that it layers out just so.
He even regaled me with the history of Irish Coffee including something about San Francisco Chronicle columnist Stanton Delaplane being served one at Ireland’s Shannon Airport bar in 1952 and then passing it on to the bar team at the Buena Vista which lead to it spreading across the rest of the country.
I suspect there’s more to that story; in salute (and after Ed’s call) we served a round of these yesterday and tipped our hat to the Irish bartender genius who poured the first one.
We’re looking forward to spring with gusto but these make winter a bit more tolerable.
4 ounces freshly brewed, strong coffee
1.5 ounces Irish whisky
1 tsp. dark brown sugar
Fresh cream
Preheat a mug with hot water; dump the water and add the sugar, followed by the piping hot coffee. Stir well to dissolve (otherwise the sugar doesn’t fully dissolve and you’ll have little clumps of sugar in the bottom); now add the whiskey.
You can top with a dollop of unsweetened, freshly whipped cream, though our Irish Coffee mentor insists that you more properly stir the cocktail with a spoon and then layer fresh cream over the top by pouring it onto the back of a spoon onto the edge of the glass.
Enjoy.
