Irish coffee was invented in the 1940s at Foynes, County Limerick, the flying boat terminal on the Shannon estuary where transatlantic flights refueled. The story goes that chef Joe Sheridan made it for a planeload of passengers whose flight had turned back in foul weather, and when one asked whether this was Brazilian coffee, he replied that it was Irish coffee. A travel writer took the idea to San Francisco, and the rest of the world followed.

The drink depends on contrast: hot below, cold above, sweet coffee and whiskey rising through cool cream. It is the right glass for the end of a long, cold race day, especially one that, like those passengers' flight, did not quite go to plan.

The cream

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup (80 ml) cold heavy cream

Method

1. Pour the cream into the small bowl and whisk by hand for about 1 to 2 minutes, just until it thickens slightly. Stop well before it holds peaks.

The coffee

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) freshly brewed strong hot coffee
• 4 teaspoons Demerara or light brown sugar
• 3 fl oz (90 ml) Irish whiskey

Method

1. Fill each glass with hot water from the kettle and leave for 1 minute, then pour the water away.
2. Put 2 teaspoons of sugar in each glass, pour in the hot coffee to about two thirds full and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved.
3. Pour 1 1/2 fl oz (45 ml) whiskey into each glass and stir once.
4. Hold a teaspoon upside down just above the surface of the coffee and pour the cream slowly over the back of the spoon so it spreads gently onto the top.

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