S3 Episode 2: The History of Irish Coffee

What this episode covers

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, this week’s episode is all about the history of Irish Coffee. Starting in a flying boat terminal in Ireland, then making its way to San Francisco, the story of how Irish Coffee made it into mainstream culture is well worth hearing. This episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast is brought to you by My Espresso Shop . Use offer code “BOISECOFFEE” to get 10% off your order including any espresso machine or grinder. Visit MyEspressoShop.com today! You can read the full episode transcript below. This episode of The Boise Coffee Podcast is brought to you by My Espresso Shop. My Espresso Shop is a leading online retailer of espresso machines, grinders, and related accessories, and with their price match guarantee you know you’re getting the absolute lowest prices on the market. Visit MyEspressoShop.com to find out more. It’s the 1930s in Ireland. A man by the name of Joe Sheridan decides to apply for a chef’s job at an airport in the city of Rineanna. It’s a small airport – a flying boat terminal, in fact, but it’s significant. The airport is called Foynes, and it becomes the first airport to host transatlantic flights between Ireland and New York City. Joe Sheridan soon becomes well known as a great chef in a new international hub. In 1943 a flight departs Foynes headed for New York with dozens of passengers on board, when suddenly a bad storm hits. The pilot is forced to turn the plane around and land back in Foynes, and, as you can probably imagine, the passengers are rather scared. Legend says that after the flight landed and the cold, shaken passengers got back into the terminal, chef and bartender Joe Sheridan decided to whip up something special. He brewed dark coffee, tossed in some sugar cubes, then added a splash of Tullamore DEW whisky. Finally, he topped the drink with a layer of cold, thick cream. As he passed the drink out, one of the passengers took a sip, then asked, “is this Brazilian coffee?” “No,” Sheridan said, “It’s Irish Coffee.” I’m Colin Mansfield and welcome to The Boise Coffee Podcast. In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, this week we’re going to talk about Irish Coffee. There’s these great videos online that I stumbled onto while preparing for this episode. You can find dozens of them by simply typing “Buena Vista Cafe” into YouTube. All of them are similar, and all of them are amazing. A bartender stands behind a row of over a dozen identical glasses – he’s wearing a white shirt, and sometimes a white jacket on top. He wears a tie, and overall has a very professional appearance. About the glasses – they’re not the type of glasses you’d usually drink alcohol out of – they have a short stem, a curved body, and a wide rim at the top. The bartender handles these glasses as if he’s touched hundreds of them before – because he has. First comes the hot water. This isn’t a part of the finished drink, it’s only meant to heat the glass up in preparation. But the bartender doesn’t pick each glass up individually to fill it with hot water – instead he takes his carafe and pours it while gliding his hand over all of the glasses, filling them nearly simultaneously. In one fell motion – whoosh – the glasses are hot. Now, down the line his hands move, dumping the contents of each heated glass into some trough hidden behind the bar. Next comes the sugar cubes. Quickly, he snatches simple white sugar cubes from a box and – plink, plink – drops two into each glass as his hands move down the line. And now – the coffee. In the same manner he dumped the water,

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