National Irish Coffee Day

It’s National Irish Coffee Day! Irish coffee is a delicious cocktail made with black coffee, sugar, Irish whiskey, and whipped cream.

Joe Sheridan, a bartender at Foynes Airbase in Ireland, invented the delicious cocktail in 1942. A group of passengers stopped at Sheridan's bar after a miserably cold eighteen-hour journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Joe brewed hot coffee, added a splash of whiskey, and offered the concoction to the travelers. According to legend, one of the passengers asked him, “Is this Brazilian coffee?” and Joe laughed and said, “No, that’s Irish coffee.”

Ten years later, Jack Koeppler, the owner of the Buena Vista bar in San Francisco, and travel writer Stanton Delaplane teamed up to bring Joe’s famous Irish coffee to the States. They experimented for months before they got the taste just right and put it on the menu. The popularity of the drink soon spread nationwide and it's been a favorite ever since.

Curl up with a heavenly mug of warm Irish coffee to celebrate National Irish Coffee Day!