On Sunday we picked up the Dale/David Project with several rounds of Irish Coffee. It felt like it was at last the final day of the holiday season, and it felt like a good day to start drinking whiskey in the morning. Irish Coffee is one of those great classic drinks that is greatly abused by uninformed mixologists, professionals and amateurs alike. On the more benign end of the abuse scale is the person who makes Irish Coffee by simply spiking their coffee with whiskey, Irish or otherwise. More offensively you will find barkeeps who confusingly think that Irish Cream belongs in Irish Coffee, or who cannot resist the temptation to put green Creme de Menthe in the drink, as if to say that since it's Irish, it must be green. Right?

Wrong. The properly made drink consists of Irish Whiskey (I used the Tullamore Dew 10yr here to good effect), a simple syrup, 3-4 oz of coffee, and lightly whipped heavy cream.

In addition to a good Irish whiskey, you need the right kind of glass. The classic glass is a smallish tulip-shaped stemmed glass, often with a little "medallion" on the stem. The Irish Coffee glass is widely available at thrift stores and on sites like Ebay. There is more to it than just kitsch; the shape and size of the glass helps the mixologist ensure the right ratio of whiskey:coffee:cream. The lines on the glass indicate roughly the proportion of these ingredients. An ounce and a half of Irish Whiskey, an ounce of brown sugar syrup (some places will use a sugar cube and melt it with the coffee), 3-4 ounces of coffee, topped with freshly made whipped cream.

The cream is one of the most important ingredients and is rarely done right at public drinkeries. Under no circumstances should the aerosol variety be used. Cool Whip, no way. On Sunday, I wasn't in the mood to bust out the Kitchen Aid before enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day and so I employed some of the methodology of the "dry shake", by putting the spring of the Hawthorne strainer into the shaker with the heavy cream. The spring acts like a whisk and the cream whips up densely and nicely. You are looking for a velvety smooth consistency that is still pourable and not meringuey. The cream should float on top of the drink and look like the head on a Guinness; it is not sweetened.

The resulting beverage will leaving you thinking about it for days. You will wake up on cold mornings and not want to get out of bed, because you know you can't have this coffee. I work in the coffee business, and rarely do I advocate the adulteration of good coffee, but I'm making an exception here. And I'm making it for breakfast tomorrow. Mmm...