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Best Apres Ski Drink: Irish Coffee Recipe
February 6, 2006 | by Heidi | Filed under Drink Recipes, Holiday Recipes
Some Like it Hot, Page 81
This Irish Coffee recipe was inspired by a weekend trip to Lake Tahoe. Friday morning I stepped out my front door and hopped into a rented SUV. I’m used to driving a spunky, small, city car, so driving a large lumbering 4x4 is a bit of a challenge for me. Nevertheless, I pumped the beast to the brim with $60 dollars worth of unleaded and headed north-east for a weekend in the snow. Although the cabin we stayed at came fully-furnished, it didn't come with the things that make a cabin a home for the weekend. The SUV served as transport for many things required for a long (and comfortable) weekend in snow-packed Lake Tahoe. Things like:
- snow shoes I’ve had since I was 16
- my favorite skillet and metal spatula
- micro-plane grater
- sea salt
- 900 layers of clothes
- good olive oil
- trusty camera
- favorite chapstick
- cozy socks
- music
- someone to cuddle with
So, off we went - 191 miles door-to-door. Across the breadth of the Golden State, across two bridges, through the San Joaquin Valley, up, up, up the snow-capped Sierras and down into the Tahoe Basin – all under crisp, blue skies.
Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe from the highway
A few hours after we arrived, a few of us drove around the lake to Emerald Bay. We parked the car in a lot just off the highway, and then slipped and slid our way down the mile-long, snow-packed trail to lake level where we poked around a shuttered and deserted Vikingsholm. We used to drive our boat onto the beach at Emerald Bay in the summer and tour the mansion as kids – but this is the first time I’ve visited in the winter and it has a completely different feel. You've got this big, heavy, stone house in a deep, quiet slumber waiting for warm weather and vibrant people to come later in the spring and bring it out of its deep sleep.
Hand carved font: detail of a trail map
Over the holidays I received a cute little collection of cold-weather drink recipes assembled in a tiny volume titled Some Like it Hot. It’s filled with the kind of drinks that warm you from the inside out after a long day on the slopes. I had my heart set on making their version Irish Coffee – if you’ve ever had Irish coffee you know why. You get a jolt of deep coffee flavor infused with the sugar-kissed alcohol-powered hotness of whiskey, sipped through a smooth, soothing layer of cream. Need I say more? I did a practice run before making them for my friends, but then in the flurry of activity that happens in a cabin kitchen trying to feed twelve people I somehow got distracted and forgot to make the drinks altogether. So, while my friends missed out – hopefully you won’t. This might be the best pick-me-up cold-weather apres ski drink ever. If it doesn’t look up your alley, flip through the rest of the book, there are dozens of other cozy-sounding drinks as well.
Tree graffiti from a distance
Kiss Me I’m Irish Coffee Recipe
For each drink:
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey
2/3 cup freshly brewed strong black coffee
1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream
Combine the sugar whiskey, and coffee in an Irish coffee glass. In a small bowl, lightly whisk the cream until slightly frothy. Gently pour the cream onto the back of a spoon resting on the surface of the coffee, so that it floats on top of the coffee. Serve without stirring.
Hot hint: Getting the cream to float on top of an Irish coffee may require a little luck of the Irish. To ensure success, don’t omit the sugar, even if you don’t typically take it in your coffee, and remember not to stir in the cream, as the secret to experiencing the true flavor of an Irish coffee is sipping through the floating cream.
Serves 1.
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Your Comments
emily said:I love Irish Coffee,but I have never made it for myself.Now I'll have to give it a try.
Hmm, wonder if you could do this with soy creamer or something ... I, too, was up at Tahoe this weekend; never have I more appreciated that Starbucks has soy milk -- a soy hot chocolate from them at the end of the day yesterday totally made me forget wiping out three times in succession on the sheer ice of the mountain run down.
Hmm, wonder if you could do this with soy creamer or something ... I, too, was up at Tahoe this weekend; never have I more appreciated that Starbucks has soy milk -- a soy hot chocolate from them at the end of the day yesterday totally made me forget wiping out three times in succession on the sheer ice of the mountain run down.
I never would have thought of a microplane grater and Tahoe as a match. :) This Irish coffee sounds great! I wonder if brown sugar would work well, too....
Irish Coffee : 1 large wine goblet with the gold gilt ring around the rim. put a sterling silver long stemed spoon in the glass. 2 teaspoons of raw sugar. 1 and a half oz Irish Whiskey. fill glass 3/4 full with fresh aromatic black coffee. top with whip cream. drizzle some green creame demethe on cream covering. add a straw and decorate with a shamrock. serve the drink with a coaster and definately with a napkin for the comfort of your guest. always drop the whiskey in first as it is light and it would ve floated on the surface and not blended into the coffee.
Hmm, wonder if you could do this with soy creamer or something ... I, too, was up at China this weekend; never have I more appreciated that Starbucks has soy milk -- a soy hot chocolate from them at the end of the day yesterday totally made me forget wiping out three times in succession on the sheer ice of the mountain run down.
Wow, that sounds so amazing. I definately want to give this a try when winter comes 'round.
so this is the real way to make irish coffee! i never even considered making my own bailey's in the past. but being the anti-mix girl i am, this seems only natural. :) thanks for the idea.
This winter break sounds amazing. I really miss skiing here in UK.
About that Irish coffee cream floating technique: I've learnt that you must stir the coffee with a spoon until you get a fast swirl and then pour the cream slowly on top in one place. It will sit perfectly.
I love Irish Coffee. And such a perfect treat in this weather. Will have to try it out. Beautiful photo as always.
That looks delicious. I'm going skiing next weekend and will definetly try some out. I thought I'd share my favorite hot drink for when it's COLD outside. They serve this at the bottom of the lifts in Switzerland.
Gluwein (pronounced GLU-vine)
1 bottle red wine
4 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1 lemon
1/4 cup sugar, to taste
Peel the lemon zest with a vegetable peeler (you don't want a microplane for this because you want big pieces) and then put the zest in a pot with the rest of the ingredients, bringing it to a simmer. You can let it infuse for a while or drink it as soon as it's hot and the sugar has dissolved (remove the zest, cloves and cinnamon stick before drinking.) It warms you from the inside out and gives you that gluwein glow!
It has been rainy and cold in Seattle and this drink recipe definately came in handy! It made a rainy chilli night bearable as it worms you from the inside. Cuddle up with a favorite blanky, a good book and this delicious coffee! thanks so much for the recipe!
NO! NO! NO! You don't whip or beat the cream at all! The trick is to get the fresh cream to slip over the spoon onto the coffee. The sugar seems to be the secret - it increases the density of the coffee (or something) so that if you do it right, the cream just floats just right.
I don't know how many so-called "Irish Coffees" I have sent back in the US 'cos they used WHIPPED cream!
And yes ... I am Irish ...
You know, the recipe up above doesn't say to whip into peaks - it just says to whip until frothy. I had my cream in a mason jar, gave it a few good shakes, and then ran it down the back of a spoon onto the coffee - the texture was quite nice.
I used work in a hotel bar in Ireland, while there I made 100's of Irish Coffees. The key is not to have the cream fully liquid or fully whipped, somewhere is the middle is best. Pour the cream on to the back of a hot spoon at the side of the glass to insure the cream floats!
Have you ever tried a Baileys Coffee?
You'll never look back.....
Wow Irish Coffee AND Lake Tahoe! Two of my favorite things! You lucky girl! :)
I hope you don't mind, I added a link to your lovely blog in my own. Thank you so much for sharing your life with us. :)
WOW! it is now on my prority list to make it at my dhaba. Now, I am on a look out for Irish Whiskey; which one would you suggest as the best Heidi that is available.
Also E CLaire for that novel recipe.
Angela said:Have you tried grating fresh nutmeg over the cream? Very good.
oh you are making me homesick with those gorgeous pictures! my favorite apres-ski drink is tuaca and hot cider with the obligatory dollop of whipped cream and cinnamon stick on top. warms me to the bone.
Vikingsholm! I had totally forgotten!
I spent a childhood just down the hill from Lake Tahoe (well, in American terms--1.5 hours would be another country in Europe), but since we weren't really a winter sport kind of family, we only went in the summer.
Lovely pictures. Thanks for sharing. I look forward to trying the Irish coffee. I love coffee and whiskey, so I don't know why I've never taken to it.
Maybe for your next trip you'd like to try some of my favorite hot drinks for cold days.
If you do not want sugar in your Irish coffe but still want to keep the cream floating, eat a spoon in the coffe, bring it to surface turned down, and let the cream fall on the back of the spoon. The cream will not "dive" into the coffe. It will flow easy on the top of the coffe.
hi this is a very good website for hotel industries prople pls send me some recepies about the cocktails and chinese
I wish they served this drink on our ski slopes! Oh, well - will do it for myself today...
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