Creamy, rich and warm this traditional Irish Coffee is sure to put you in the spirit for St Patrick's day! I know St Patrick's Day isn't an official holiday but with the attention and love it gets, you'd think it was.
The middle of March is a special time for me, with my birthday falling the day before St Patrick's Day and meeting my wife the day after St Patrick's Day I have two excuses to raise a glass!
The famous Irish Coffee is high up on the list of all things perfect for St Patrick's Day celebrating, just like Guinness and soda bread. Actually I had never tasted an Irish Coffee until a visit to San Francisco with my wife where she insisted that we had to visit The Buena Vista Cafe.
They've been serving Irish Coffee since the 50's and to see them still follow the same method is quite the show, making rows upon rows of the drink at the same time. The cafe sits above Fisherman's Wharf, overlooking the bay and with a cable car stop right outside you don't have far to stumble if you have one too many, which is completely possible (cough..)
My version is just a teeny bit different than the original which uses fresh brewed coffee, brown sugar, Irish Whiskey and cream. For a few weeks now, I've been using the new Nespresso by KitchenAid.
Being a serious coffee drinker, this machine hasn't let me down. You have to remember that it's giving you pure espresso and the choices and various strengths available from Nespresso are fantastic.
This is where I switched my Irish Coffee recipe from regular brewed coffee to a deep, rich espresso. That's the only change I made and did I feel bad drinking this one after I finished photographing it at 10 in the morning...not one bit.
I noticed that floating the cream is a little trickier because of the thick crema from the espresso, but it still stays separated from the coffee just like an Irish Coffee should do. With some of the crazy weather happening right now, this is the perfect drink for keeping warm even if it's still February!
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