Irish Coffee Recipes from Master Baristas

Just as there isn't one definitive coffee or whiskey, there are a multitude of Irish Coffees. It's all about balance and the choice of ingredients. Theresa Prüssen, Victoria Arthofer, and Nicole Battefeld share their recipes here. What they have in common is that they are national champions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

On a foggy February day in 2015 in Oslo, I learned that Irish Coffee is probably the most challenging and at the same time most comforting coffee drink. I was judging the "Coffee in Good Spirits" competition, which is the barista discipline where coffee is mixed with alcohol to create innovative and delicious cocktails. The competition consists of various parts, one of which is the Irish Coffee.

Well, one might think, Irish Coffee is basically just coffee, cream, sugar, and whiskey – each delicious on its own, so all ingredients together must be even more delicious. Well – until that day in February 2015, I thought similarly.

One contestant brewed a filtered coffee from Panama, a Gesha variety, for her Irish Coffee base. The coffee was dry-processed and had intense notes of papaya and jasmine. She used palm syrup for sweetness, mixed it with a smoky Japanese whiskey, and topped the drink with slightly acidified cream. I was stunned. Until then, I hadn't realized that this drink, which visually seems unattractive compared to other cocktails, could be so complex and surprising.

What is Irish Coffee?

Irish Coffee consists of only four ingredients: coffee as a base, mixed with whiskey, all sweetened, and topped with whipped cream. There is hardly any other mixed drink that can taste so varied.

It sounds as if all Irish Coffees would taste similar because they always consist of the same ingredients. But the interesting thing about this drink is that each individual component can be chosen so precisely that it achieves perfect balance and evokes new flavor notes.

The Glass

The classic Irish Coffee recipes are based – according to legend – on a glass with a filling volume of 6 ounces, or about 180ml. In the "Coffee in Good Spirits" competition mentioned at the beginning, glasses with a 240ml filling volume are used.

It probably depends on your thirst and the outside temperature which size you prefer. The glass is a classic stemmed glass. This allows the glass to be heated while the bottom is rotated. An Irish Coffee only looks good if the glass is filled to the brim, and that requires a lot of coffee.

The Coffee Type: Filter Coffee

The drink captivates – and I will come back to this several times – through balance. Even with the coffee itself, we must pay attention to balance here. Just because coffee is one of several ingredients, we shouldn't just grab any random coffee. We also recommend not using espresso. Espresso or even lungos are generally too strong and would dominate the drink and, indeed, throw it off balance.

Filter-brewed coffees prove to be the perfect ingredient here. Filter coffee adds volume to the drink and transports finer, more complex notes into the overall construct. Espresso or similarly intense drinks are not as delicate and would overshadow the finer notes in the whiskey. However, the filter coffee should be brewed a bit stronger, i.e., over-dosed, than usual. It will be significantly diluted afterward. We recommend at least 7g of coffee per 100ml of water, instead of the usual 6g of coffee per 100ml of water.

The Coffee Flavor: Experiment

During my awakening experience in Oslo, the participant brewed an extremely characteristic filter coffee, which she then used in her Irish Coffee. However, a complex coffee alone does not make the Irish Coffee better if the other ingredients are not selected with equal precision.

We have found that well-developed filter coffees are ideally suited as a base. The very light coffees tend to get lost in flavor. "Well-developed" in our filter coffee language means that we would roast them 10 seconds longer than another filter coffee.

Characteristic coffees that are very floral or fruity can be just as enjoyable as nutty-chocolatey coffees. Here, too, it's about finding the balance with the other ingredients. A peaty whiskey, for example, harmonizes less well with a very fruity Kenyan filter coffee. Younger whiskeys with brighter notes, however, go very well with more floral coffees.

There's certainly no rule about how coffees and whiskeys harmonize. Experimentation is key. It's also advisable to choose a filter coffee and then find a suitable whiskey to go with it. A quite exciting task, best tackled on a weekend.

The Sweetener

Anyone who automatically thinks of sugar when they hear "sweet" is invited to try something different here. The sweetness component serves to make the drink more balanced and to mitigate the high alcohol content of the whiskey somewhat.

Syrups not only sweeten the drink but also give it a smoother texture. From simple sugar syrup to date or palm syrup, there are various methods by which sweetness can be combined with texture.

Muscovado sugar, stevia, molasses, honey – anything sweet serves its purpose and invites experimentation. But too much sweetness is also not good – balance should definitely be maintained. And the drink is already quite rich, so it doesn't need that much sugar.

The Whiskey

Just as with coffee, we find a wide variety of different interpretations and flavors in whiskey. If you start clicking through the various whiskey blogs, you'll quickly realize that the whiskey world is just as colorful as the coffee world.

Whiskey connoisseurs distinguish between woody, malty, floral, fruity, peaty, tart, grainy, grassy, fruity, earthy, and wine-like www.maltwhisky.de flavor profiles.

Before you dive into tasting right away, it makes sense to familiarize yourself with the basics of whiskey knowledge. It's best to choose four completely different whiskeys—fruity, peaty, grainy, and X—and then try to combine them with a coffee. This will give you a basic idea of what pairs well. After that, you can delve into the details, which are no less fun but require a bit of physical robustness.

The Cream

The cream, as the crowning glory of the drink, is also the first impression when drinking. Not only is the temperature crucial here, which we will discuss shortly, but also the creaminess and, of course, the taste.

Fresh cream tastes different from long-life UHT and ESL creams. Even a hint of aging-related aromas, which make the cream somewhat rancid, cardboardy, or too buttery, can be disruptive.

Here, too, it's worth trying out different types and brands of cream, shaking them, and simply tasting them as they are. Yes, nobody said the path to the perfect Irish Coffee is a walk in the park. It's quite strenuous.

The Temperature

For me, the most exciting element of Irish Coffee is the temperature contrast. When our lips touch the glass, we first feel the cool cream. The flatter we hold the glass, the more warm-hot whiskey-coffee mixture sloshes out from under the cream.

The greater the discrepancy in temperatures, the greater this surprise effect. But be careful: the cream should not be so cold that your teeth start to hurt, nor should the coffee be so hot that someone burns their tongue. The goal here is to get as close as possible to the extreme values. It's best to measure this with a simple digital thermometer.

The Mixing Ratio

Even if all the ingredients are right, it unfortunately doesn't mean that the final product has to be really delicious. My favorite cake, a Swedish buttermilk cake, is only really delicious when the right ratio is chosen. Although the individual ingredients are all delicious, they don't necessarily have to harmonize.

To find the right mixing ratio, it's best to brew a large filter coffee and put 50g each into espresso cups. For the first cup, you would now add 5g of whiskey, for the second 10g, etc. This way, you understand what ratio works for you, how much coffee flavor and how much alcohol it should contain. Since you're working with ratios here, you can then easily scale them up for larger quantities.

The Balance

Once you have your best ingredients together, the most exciting phase really begins. A little more of this, a little less of that, a little hotter, a little cooler – finding the right balance is great fun.

It's worth thinking of the drink as an alcoholic cocktail rather than a coffee cocktail. Bartenders always aim for the best possible balance. The coffee doesn't have to be in the foreground, and neither does the whiskey. Ideally, the two products complement each other and form a synergy, evoking new flavor notes that we hadn't even considered before.

Recipes from Barista Champions

Three Coffee in Good Spirits champions share their recipes for their perfect Irish Coffee here. Theresa Prüssen became Swiss Champion in 2016, Nicole Battefeld from Germany took an impressive fifth place at the World Championships in 2019. Victoria Arthofer from Austria is a two-time Austrian champion.

Theresa Prüssen

In conversation with Theresa (see video above), it became clear that for her, Irish Coffee is a refined cocktail and has nothing to do with Kafi Schnapps or Kafi Lutz, where it's actually just about the alcohol.

For Theresa, Irish Coffee is a playground, as she can constantly try out new ingredients.

Nicole Battefeld

Nicole Battefeld achieved fifth place at the 2019 Coffee in Good Spirits World Championships. Such an achievement is no accident – she describes her exciting and detailed journey there in her blog.

Nicole's recipe is really interesting because she uses coconut cream instead of cow's cream. I can (so far) only imagine how it tastes, it definitely sounds very delicious.

Victoria Arthofer

Victoria Arthofer is the Austrian Coffee in Good Spirits Champion and runs the café-bar "Das kleine Schwarze" in Steyr. She also shared her favorite recipe and her personal thoughts on Irish Coffee with us.

Why Irish Coffee?

"Irish Coffee simply reminds me of my Alchemy days in Salzburg ('where it all began') – and I just really enjoy preparing it – because an Irish Coffee also just looks great when it's finished. The best part is the first sips through the cold cream, to the warm, sweet coffee-alcohol mixture."

The opinion of the World Championship judge: Nina Rimpl

Nina Rimpl is the National Coordinator of the SCA Switzerland and has been a sensory judge at international coffee championships for several years. She particularly enjoys the Coffee in Good Spirits competition, where Irish Coffee is one of the drinks to be served.

Regarding Irish Coffee, Nina clearly states:

an underestimated drink, unfortunately prepared horribly almost everywhere.

Nina Rimpl, Sensory Judge

Nina continues: "Irish coffee is fantastic at the right moments. Autumn/winter, late afternoon, after a long walk, something between a drink/coffee/warm-up/dessert. Irish Coffee consists of few ingredients, the most important thing is the balance, or rather the ratio of the ingredients. It's not about the creativity of the ingredients."

And further:

A classic coffee cocktail that can be well associated with specialty coffee, as the characteristics of single origins can be wonderfully brought into synergy with the remaining ingredients.

Nina Rimpl, SCA Coordinator Switzerland

But how does Nina actually judge an Irish Coffee?

"Firstly, and most importantly, the temperature difference between the cold cream and the very warm rest of the drink. When you put the glass to your lips, your lip touches the cream, the cream slowly makes its way into your mouth, and suddenly, at a certain angle of the glass, the quite warm liquid with a completely different viscosity penetrates through, and the alcohol burns minimally in your mouth. Not too sweet, the alcohol must be recognizable, and for me, the character of the coffee as well. A 'normal' filter recipe is rarely suitable; the drink gets a watery character, the coffee must be quite intense/dense to unfold its character."

Secondly, for Nina, the combination of ingredients is crucial:

"I had the privilege of judging the Coffee in Good Spirits World Championship final twice and tasted some incredibly delicious Irish Coffees there. Complex, well-rounded, multi-layered, smooth. It's a shame that as a judge, you only get two sips on stage. What I remember most is Dan Fellows' IC, which was announced as a sticky toffee pudding and reminded me exactly of that feeling of Christmas and spices."