Irish Coffee

Joe Sheridan was chef at the Foynes flying boat terminal on the Shannon estuary in 1943 when a night flight to Newfoundland turned back in bad weather and the passengers came ashore cold and miserable at some hour of the morning. He put whiskey in their coffee with sugar and floated cream on top; an American asked if it was Brazilian coffee and he said no, Irish coffee. The drink travelled: Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, drank one at Shannon Airport and took the idea to the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco in 1952, which worked out how to make the cream float consistently and has sold enormous quantities since. The construction matters - hot coffee, sugar dissolved, Irish whiskey, then lightly whipped cream poured over the back of a spoon so it sits on top, and it is drunk through the cream, not stirred.

What you actually see

• The float - cream poured over a spoon to sit on the coffee, not stirred in.
• The 1943 origin - Sheridan's improvisation for stranded flying boat passengers.
• The San Francisco route - Delaplane and the Buena Vista from 1952.
• The proportions - hot coffee, dissolved sugar, whiskey, then the cream.

When to go

Any time, and it makes most sense in cold weather. Pubs everywhere serve it, though quality varies enormously - a good one is not made with squirty cream from a can.

Honest expectations

Widely made badly - aerosol cream and pre-mixed syrups are common in tourist pubs. It is strong and sweet. Nothing at Foynes serves the original recipe as a working cafe; the museum tells the story.

Nearby

The Foynes Flying Boat Museum on the Shannon estuary covers the invention.