Variations
In 1988, the National Standards Authority of Ireland published Irish Standard I.S. 417: Irish Coffee.
Although whiskey, coffee and cream are the basic ingredients in all Irish coffee, variations in preparation exist. The choice of coffee and the methods used for brewing it differ significantly. The use of espresso machines or fully automatic coffee brewers is now typical: the coffee is either a caffè americano (espresso diluted with hot water) or some kind of filter coffee, often made using a coffee capsule.
The cream used by some bars to make what is sold as "Irish coffee" is sometimes sprayed from a can. Some bartenders gently shake fresh cream to achieve a smooth layer atop the coffee.
In Spain, Irish Coffee (café irlandés) is sometimes served with a bottom layer of whiskey, a separate coffee layer, and a layer of cream on top; special devices are sold for making it.
The World Coffee In Good Spirits Championship is a yearly event in which Irish coffee is one of two coffee cocktails prepared by finalists. The preferred coffees used in national heats as well as in the international finals the last years have been mild coffea arabicas (Colombia or Latin America), and the preferred brew methods have gone towards filter methods; 'pour over', 'syphon' or 'aeropress'.
Many drinks of hot coffee with a distilled spirit, and cream floated on top—liqueur coffees—are given names derived from Irish coffee, although the names are not standardised; Jamaican coffee would be expected to be made with rum, Highland coffee with Scotch whisky, and so on.
Read more about this topic: Irish Coffee
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