Mystery Solved
The Complete Truth about IRISH COFFEE
It was a dark and stormy night.
While those hackneyed words have opened many a poorly written short story that will not be the direction of this report. At least I hope that’s not where we are heading.
It was however just such a night in 1942 when an airliner bound for New York took off from Foynes Airbase, the airfield that served the aviation needs of Limerick, Ireland. The pilot determined that the terrible weather conditions, cold and very rainy, were not conducive to head westward over the North Atlantic and turned back to the airfield safely bringing the aircraft back to earth.
Just adjacent to the Airbase was a small eatery which served light fare and heavy drinks. The proprietor, Chef Joe Sheridan, realized that the plane’s passengers were cold, wet and with the cancellation of all flights until the morning, they were not in for a comfortable evening in the terminal. Sheridan concocted a hot beverage meant to bring some soothing warmth to the disappointed passengers. Taking a staple of a proven method to warm a body when it has been exposed to extremely cold weather conditions, a really hot coffee, he added the local product known as Irish whiskey, along with some cool whipped cream, a good insertion of brown sugar and put the blend into a warmed mug. Like so many other cocktails, opposite ingredients worked together and Irish Coffee was born.
Irish Coffee may have remained a strictly local Irish specialty drink were it not for a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Stanton Delaplane. Stan was traveling around Ireland to discover and report on the many reasons for his readers to visit the Emerald Isle, a challenging assignment given the fact that The Troubles between the Irish and the English were still inflamed. There was gunfire and physical attacks from one group against the other.
Delaplane stopped in Limerick on his research trip and found a cocktail he did not know he was looking for. He rightly concluded that Irish Coffee would be a perfect beverage for his hometown which experienced a pretty cold climate year-round. Mark Twain noted that the coldest winter he ever experienced was a summer in San Francisco. On his return home, Delaplane introduced Irish Coffee to his favorite coffee house, the Buena Vista.
The Buena Vista is on the north side of the city, very near the chilly waters of San Francisco Bay and close to Fisherman’s Wharf. The destination diner is one block from the northern turnaround for the Hyde Street cable car. The marriage of the Buena Vista and Irish Coffee was made with the correct understanding of a need in search of a solution. Today, Visitors and Natives alike who are in San Francisco continue to make the pilgrimage to the Buena Vista to taste the real deal and in the process, knock back the San Francisco chill.
New Orleans is never completely left off this story. How could it be? Cocktails are involved.
First of all, New Orleans is one of the largest, if not the largest, by tonnage, coffee importing port in the world. We are also home to the largest coffee roasting plant on the planet. Known by natives as Folger’s, located on Chef Menteur in Gentilly, the plant was sold several years ago, as was the brand, to the J.M. Smucker Company, Yes, those wonderful folks who have brought fruit jelly to your table for all of your life, since 2008 now bring coffee too.
We all know coffee does not grow well in the United States. The raw product, a small hard, dark-colored bean, has to be imported from Latin and South American countries. Brazil is a key coffee-growing country, as are Peru, Honduras, Columbia and several African nations. New Orleans is one of the closest U.S. water ports to South American countries so our port was a logical and efficient destination.
Then since coffee beans have to be roasted to bring out their aromas and flavors, a roasting facility here was also logical. And yet again, New Orleans’ location worked in favor of commerce and assisted the fulfillment of demands of Americans for a beverage our country seems to love very much.
However, it is usually New Orleans creativity that adds a certain panache to the equation. Despite the fact that we possess a semi-tropical climate, New Orleans took a beverage developed for its warmth and froze it.
The Frozen Irish Coffee became a walking-around, go-cup sensation, an answer to a situation that does not exist for the original product but for which the New Orleans climate, top-end heat and humidity, is certainly present. The noted French Quarter saloon impresario, Jim Monaghan wanted to create a statement cocktail based on Irish Whiskey, enter the Frozen Irish Coffee.
Appropriately enough, Erin Rose, an Irish-themed bar also a Monaghan outpost, on Conti Street, just off Bourbon Street, in the Upper Quarter, is generally credited with the extended success of this magical, truly-cold potion. Not surprisingly, a Frozen Irish Coffee in the middle of August is just about the most perfect cool-down cocktail you can enjoy. Surprisingly, the Frozen Irish Coffee also seems the ideal cocktail for wet and cold January. And don’t miss the opportunity to be completely correct with the original or the further developed Frozen Irish Coffee around St. Patrick’s Day in mid-March.
It’s the devotion and mix-anything-mix-everything, give it a try attitude which New Orleans consumers bring to adult beverages that keep the creative wheels spinning. On balance those same consumers, encouraged by some world-class talent behind the bar, who continue to keep the mature industry remain mature and vibrant.
Irish Coffee (Frozen)
As served by
Erin Rose Bar
811 Conti
New Orleans
Ingredients
8 ounces (1 cup) cold strong black coffee
2 cups (1 pint) vanilla ice cream
3 ounces Irish Whiskey, or more as desired
Coffee grounds for garnish