The Cream Tip You Need To Properly Top Off Your Irish Coffee

When it comes to coffee, a homemade Irish cream coffee is the dessert daddy coffee of them all. Per Gothrider, Irish coffee is a beloved drink in the United States, Canada, and the U.K., where it is said the first Irish cream coffee was created in Foynes Port, Ireland. The tale of this drink's birth has a bit of a "Canterbury Tales-esque" feel to it — as the story goes, weary travelers found themselves at a local tavern waiting for their flight in the 1940s. The chef, Joe Sheridan, decided to lift their spirits and concocted what we know as an Irish cream coffee using hot coffee, brown sugar, whipped cream, and a little bit of whiskey. It was a hit, and the rest is history.

Of course, as The Guardian points out, one of the tricks to making an Irish cream coffee just right is getting your whipped cream to stay at the top of the drink. Cool Whip and Reddi-wip are definitely refrigerator staples when you need this topping in a jiffy. However, neither will give your Irish cream coffee the creamy authenticity this drink deserves. For your Irish cream coffee to be just like the ones Sheridan whipped up, you need to use whipping cream. We've got a creamy tip to help you properly top off this beverage the next time you make it.

If there is one thing that most people agree on when it comes to making an Irish cream coffee, it's that it's all about using quality ingredients. Perhaps the most important ingredient is the crowning glory of this drink: the cream. Both Liquor.com and The Guardian concur and recommend using heavy whipping cream to achieve the consistency and density needed for the cream to float. As Amanda Marsteller explains for Liquor.com, the San Franciscan restaurant that made this drink famous in the U.S. — the Buena Vista Cafe — uses an upright blender to accomplish this task. The use of a blender allows for a "slower thickening" of the cream, giving it the perfect texture. Of course, if you do not have a blender, you can try to use a protein shaker.

Practice makes perfect, so if you don't get it right, try, try again. That said, the folks at Buena Vista Cafe found that "aged cream" tends to work best, so plan accordingly — look for heavy whipping cream that contains more than 36% fat. Additionally, The Guardian shares that once you get the cream right, you can infuse it with some lovely flavors like orange zest.