National Irish Coffee Day Date in the current year: January 25, 2024

Irish coffee consists of hot coffee, Irish whiskey and cream. The cream floats on top, and the coffee is drunk through it. Irish coffee is one of International Bartenders Association official cocktails, listed as a contemporary classic.

According to the most common version of the origins of Irish coffee, it was invented by an Irishman whose name was Joe Sheridan. He was a head chef at the restaurant and coffeeshop located in the flying boat terminal of the Foynes Airport in County Limerick. One night in the winter of 1943, a flight that had departed Foynes for Canada had to return to the airport because of horrible weather. Sheridan was called back to work and asked to make something warm for the passengers.

He did some thinking and came up with the idea of adding some quality Irish whiskey into coffee. One of the passengers loved the coffee so much that he decided to approach the chef and thank him. When he asked whether Joe had used Brazilian coffee, the chef jokingly answered that it was Irish coffee. A few weeks later, Sheridan began to serve the new drink in the coffeeshop, pouring it into stemmed glasses for visual appeal.

Irish coffee was allegedly introduced to the United States in 1952 by Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer who first tried it at Shannon Airport. Upon returning to San Francisco, where he was based at the time, Delaplane went to the owner of the Buena Vista Cafe and convinced him to start serving Irish coffee at his bar. The two perfected the original recipe, creating the Irish coffee we all know and love.