Bob Parsons Alberta wrote:Good answer above Walt, don`t get me started on those Paralysers!!
A Paralyzer sounds a bit on the nose for a cocktail!
Hoke wrote:Moscow Mules---that cocktail has made a resounding comeback in bartender/mixology circles, so it's au courant again. It's still best in the "traditional" copper cup (because it emphasizes the coldness and gingery zinginess of the cocktail. Plus bartenders can add that fresh ginger zing all they want, and enhance it in other ways. It's also a good drink for clubbing because, a a la highball, there's usually way more non-alcoholic in ratio to alcoholic. Plus, the younger drinkers love it.
I've not see it while out and about, but I also tend to ignore vodka drinks. I'm always on the lookout for good non-alcoholic drinks, so I will try a virgin version, and I'm also curious to try rum or tequila; it seems like a flexible base to start from. No dedicated glasses, though; we're with Alton Brown that only one unitasker is permitted per kitchen.
Hoke wrote:1. Use good Irish Whiskey (which you did, Cooley makes a nice pot still style of Irish, in comparison to the Bushmills, which makes malt scotch. The Pot Still style works better with Irish Coffee than the Malt Style, imo.
2. As Imbibe says, use brown sugar. I don't make simple syrup; I just use the sugar, as brown sugar is easy to mix in hot coffee.
3. No instant! French or Italian, or even Viennese, roast grade from a top roaster, either drip or French Press, made fresh to order.
4. None of that canned whipped cream. Hand whipped, fresh and not to the stiff point, then slid slowly over the back of a spoon on top of the coffee/sugar mix. Part of the joy of a great IC is sipping 'through' the sweet soft cream, then getting hit full force with the intensified whiskiness of the booze, then hit with the soft richness of the brown sugar.
5. Rule: If anyone, ever, serves you an "Irish Coffee" that looks like a latte, refuse it. That's just a latte with some whiskey in it,which is fine, but it's not Irish Coffee.
That experience of sipping through the cream was exactly what I liked about the drink. Such a contrast of flavor, temperature, and texture. I will confess that I have not hand-whipped cream since college, when I was invited to a Seder in Los Angeles and the hostess's mixer was on the fritz. Since then it is strictly Kitchen Aid. Still, I would make this for company, as you suggest. It's not difficult to make one, and making a dozen would be scarcely more trouble.