Pota Phadraig & the origin of Irish Coffee

St. Patrick

Pota Phadraig

The custom of imbibing alcohol on St. Patrick's Day comes from an old Irish legend.  As the story goes, St. Patrick was served a measure of whiskey that was considerabley less than full.  St. Patrick took this as an opportunity to teach a lesson of generosity to the innkeeper.  He told the innkeeper that in his cellar resided a monstrous devil who fed on the dishonesty of the innkeeper.  In order to banish the devil, the man must change his ways.  When St. Patrick returned to the inn some time later, he found the owner generously filling the patrons' glasses to overflowing.  He returned to the cellar with the innkeeper and found the devil emaciated from the landlord's generosity, and promptly banished the demon, proclaiming thereafter everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day.  This custom is know as Pota Phadraig or Patrick's Pot.  The custom is know as "drowning the shamrock" because it is customary to float a leaf of the plant in the whiskey before downing the shot.

Irish Coffee

The Irish Coffee was created by Irish chef Joe Sheridan in 1942 at the Foynes airbase (replace by today's nearby Shannon International Airport) near Co. Limerick, Ireland.  The story goes that a flight returned to the airport after attempting to reach New York during a winter storm one evening.  Sheridan ran the airport's new restaurant and mixed up the first round of Irish Coffee for the stranded passengers and the name came about with the following exchange...

"Hey Buddy," said a surprised American passenger, "is the Brazillian coffee?"  "No," said Joe, "that's Irish Coffee." 

The Irish Coffee was a huge success and became a regular drink to have at the airport.  In 1953 a travel writer by the name of Stanton Delaplane brought the recipe to the United States, drawing it's attention to a bartender of the Buena Vista Hotel in San Francisco by the name of Jack Koeppler.  The cream kept sinking when Koeppler tried to make the drink so he traveled to the source to learn the correct way to make this new coffee drink.  As the story goes, he ended up offering Joe Sheridan a position in the American Buena Vista Cafe where you can still get a great Irish Cofee.  As witty as the Irish tend to be, this is how Joe Sheridan explained how to make a true Irish Coffee...

                  Cream - rich as an Irish brogue

                  Coffee - strong as a friendly hand

                  Sugar - sweet as the tongue of a rogue

                  Whiskey - smooth as the wit of the land

 Irish Coffee

4 oz. strong, rich hot coffee
1 oz. Irish whiskey
2 tsp. brown sugar
1 oz. lightly whipped cream

Pour the sugar then the coffee into a warmed Irish coffee glass, mug, or other heat-proof stemmed glass.  Stir until dissolved.  Add the Irish whiskey and stir again.  Float the cream on top by pouring it over the back of a spoon.  Do not stir again, instead drink the coffee through the cream.

I use Jameson Irish Whiskey