At the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, bartenders line up a row of glasses down the bar, fill them all at once, and finish each with a white collar of cream. It’s been going since 1952. The Buena Vista says it brought Irish coffee to America, and nobody seriously disputes it.
How It Came to San Francisco
Irish coffee started in Ireland. In the early 1940s, Joe Sheridan, a chef at the Foynes flying-boat terminal on the Shannon estuary, started adding Irish whiskey to coffee for cold, delayed passengers. When a passenger reportedly asked if it was Brazilian coffee, Sheridan said, ‘No, that’s Irish coffee.’
In 1952, San Francisco Chronicle travel writer Stanton Delaplane had one at Shannon Airport and told Jack Koeppler, owner of the Buena Vista, about it. On November 10, 1952, the two of them spent the evening trying to recreate it. The hard part was the cream — it kept sinking. The story goes that they eventually worked out that cream aged for a couple of days and frothed lightly would float. The drink became the bar’s signature, and today the Buena Vista serves huge numbers of them every day.
What the Buena Vista Makes
The recipe hasn’t changed much:
- A small, stemmed 6-oz glass, preheated with hot water
- Two sugar cubes
- Hot coffee, filling the glass about three-quarters
- A jigger of Tullamore D.E.W. Irish whiskey
- A collar of lightly whipped cream on top
That’s it. No Baileys, no whipped cream from a can, no crème de menthe, no green sprinkles. It’s served without a straw or stirrer, so you drink the hot, sweet coffee through the cold cream.
Why Home Versions Fall Flat
Three common problems:
- Sweetened whipped cream from a can. It’s too airy and too sweet, it melts into foam, and the drink tastes like dessert.
- Unwhipped liquid cream. It just sinks into the coffee and turns it beige.
- No sugar. People skip the sugar to cut sweetness, but sugar is structural here. It makes the coffee denser, which helps the cream float.
The glass size matters too. A huge mug means more coffee, so the whiskey and sugar get diluted and the drink tastes thin.
The Key Technique: Barely Whipped Cream
Put cold heavy cream in a jar and shake it for 10 to 15 seconds, or whisk it briefly. Stop when it has thickened to the consistency of melted ice cream — it should pour in a slow ribbon but not hold a shape. Then pour it over the back of a spoon held just above the coffee. It will sit on top in a neat layer.
Too little whipping and it sinks; too much and it sits in a clump instead of spreading into a collar.
Serving a Crowd
Irish coffee doesn’t batch well in a pitcher, but it’s easy to produce in a row the way the Buena Vista does. Keep a pot of coffee hot with the sugar already dissolved, preheat the glasses, measure the whiskey into each, top with coffee, and float cream on each in turn. Whip all the cream at once just before serving.
The Mocktail: Fog Cutter Coffee
The whiskey adds warmth, malt and a little oak. A splash of strong black tea gives you the malt and tannin, and two drops of vanilla suggest oak. Keep both sugar cubes — that’s what makes the cream float — and you’ll have a drink that looks and feels like the original.
Choosing the Glass and the Coffee
The Buena Vista’s glass is part of why its drink works. It’s a small, stemmed, 6-ounce glass, and that size keeps the ratio of whiskey to coffee right. A 12-ounce mug either dilutes the whiskey or needs twice the cream. If you don’t have Irish coffee glasses, a small heatproof wine glass or a 6–8 oz mug works.
For coffee, choose a medium roast brewed in a drip machine or pour-over. The Buena Vista’s coffee is not espresso and not especially strong. Dark, oily roasts make the drink bitter and fight the whiskey.
Enjoy responsibly — must be 21+.
