Irish Coffee

Irish coffee is a hot drink made from hot coffee, Irish whiskey and sugar, topped with a layer of lightly whipped cream that is meant to float on the surface rather than mix into the coffee below. It is credited to chef Joe Sheridan at the Foynes and later Shannon flying boat terminal in County Limerick, Ireland, in the nineteen forties, said to have been created to warm and comfort cold, weary transatlantic airline passengers. The drink was popularized in the United States after a travel writer encountered it in Ireland and helped introduce it to a San Francisco bar in the nineteen fifties, from where it spread across America and internationally.