THE IRISH COFFEE
The original Irish Coffee was created by an airport chef named Joe Sheridan who worked at the Little Foynes airport near Limerick. In the winter of 1943, Joe decided to whip a hot alcoholic drink for some weary passengers whose plane got turned around due to a storm.
Fast forward to the present day, and the Irish Coffee is served in just about every bar & restaurant around the world. However, a lot of the time it is not served very well: Cream that sinks or even squirty cream! Coffee too hot or too cold; too sweet or not sweet enough; the wrong type of whiskey is used. The list goes on for all the wrong reasons. Most times, it’s the bane of a bartender’s existence – they generally only like serving cold drinks as anything hot is too complicated.
Christmas 2021 in the Garrick and assistant manager Mick (or Limerick Mick as I call him) commented that he had made 6 Irish Coffees for a table. But by the time he got to the last one, the first one was cold. I thought to myself: “this can’t be right. We need to fix this”.
It so happens that we are good friends with Sean Muldoon & Jack Mc Garry from the famous Dead Rabbit bar in New York. They have spent an enormous amount of time perfecting the Irish Coffee and have created a unique system using a sous vide (water bath) to hold a special mix of Sumatra Mandheling Coffee (roasted specially for us by Founders Coffee) & Demerara Sugar Syrup at the correct temperature.
COPELAND DISTILLERY
X THE GARRICK
The Garrick Bar have partnered with The Copeland Distillery to curate a unique blend of Irish Whiskeys in our pursuit of perfecting the Irish Coffee.
After extensive development on this project, we have created the world’s first exclusively blended Irish Whiskey for Irish Coffees, tailored to elevate the tasting experience.
A unique blend of 5 year old malt and grain whiskeys.
SINGLE GRAIN:
American Bourbon, Muscatel & PX Sherry
Light, allowing the casks to take centre stage and complement the coffee with notes of vanilla, spice and nutty, fruity sweetness.
DOUBLE DISTILLED SINGLE MALT:
Olorosso Sherry
Dried fruit flavours, adding enough depth and complexity without overpowering the drink
DOUBLE DISTILLED CHOCOLATE MALT:
American Bourbon
Bold roasted malt provides stout and cocoa flavours that pair well with the coffee