Coffee. Sugar. Alcohol. It doesn’t get any better than this. It’s Irish Coffee, which can — and should — be enjoyed throughout the year, not only on St. Patrick’s Day.

The drink’s origin story is that Joe Sheridan, a chef at an airport restaurant in Ireland, invented it to keep customers from freezing. Like all myths, there are several versions

One says it happened in 1938. Another, set in 1943, has Sheridan first making the drink for passengers of a Pan Am flight headed to New York that had to return because of bad weather. To warm up the folks on the Pan Am flight, Sheridan poured whiskey into it. He also knew Americans liked their beverages sweet, so he added cream and sugar.

Someone asked if it was Brazilian coffee. Sheridan replied, “Irish Coffee!”

The beverage came to America in 1952, when a San Francisco newspaper columnist tasted it in Ireland and raved about it upon his return. A bartender at his favorite watering hole, the Buena Vista Cafe, created it for American drinkers. (There’s also a “story” that a New York City tavern offered the drink in 1946.)

Today, Buena Vista uses Tullamore Dew whisky, coffee, sugar cubes and heavy cream.

Customers watch as bartender Darcy Parsons makes the signature Irish Coffee at the Buena Vista Cafe near Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. (Photo by Eric Risberg, The Associated Press)

“The cream is the hard part,” said Larry Silva, one of the cafe’s managers. “It takes (new) bartenders the better part of a year to get it just right.”

“Getting the cream right,” says Silva, means it floats on top of the drink and won’t “seep into it.” It will have a liquid quality to it — this is achieved also by using an aged cream — “but not slushy,” he says.

The bartenders add the cream not by squirting it from an aerosol can but by spooning it by hand from a container.

The cafe originally used three small cubes of sugar called cocktail cubes, but manufacturers stopped making smaller ones, and the cafe now uses two larger cubes, which, Silva says, gives the drink a slightly sweeter taste.

The Buena Vista Cafe serves up to 2,000 Irish Coffees a day, according to its website. Silva estimates 60 percent of its Irish Coffee sales are to tourists, the remaining 40 percent are sold to regular customers. Buena Vista Cafe charges $13 for an Irish Coffee.

Locally, several “Irish” taverns offer their own versions of the drink.

Brothers Francis and David Castagnetti took over the Tom Bergin’s on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles after it had been shuttered for nearly two years and was saved from demolition by a preservation act status. (It had been in business since the glory days of Hollywood, and Cary Grant and Bing Crosby were regulars.) The brothers took over the business in 2019.

“We had the traditional Irish coffee recipe that they’d (previously owners) used,” said Francis Castagnetti. The new owners then decided to come up with their own recipe and tested it “forever.”

“I mean, if you have an enormous screen neon sign that says ‘House of Irish Coffee,’ you better make a perfect Irish Coffee,” said Francis Castagnetti.

After several months, the brothers decided to go back to a recipe favored by their grandfather in Ireland. “Sometimes you overthink,” said Francis Castagnetti. “This is our Irish coffee.”

Their recipe calls for 1.5 ounces of Bushmills whisky, a simple syrup of warm water and organic sugar, a medium roast coffee, and heavy cream that is shaken “so it gets super thick.” They do not preheat the glasses. The Castagnettis use Zona Rosa, a coffee made in Pasadena.

Francis Castagnetti says they sell hundreds of Irish Coffees a week and “thousands” during St. Patrick’s Day week. They charge $12.

The Auld Dubliner in Long Beach makes its Irish Coffee with brown sugar, homemade Irish cream, Tullamore Dew whiskey and their own home-brewed coffee. Glasses are preheated with hot water. General Manager Janeen Pisano said this is the recipe the tavern has used in the 10 years she’s been there. She said in prior years the Auld Dubliner sold as many Irish Coffees during non-St. Patrick’s Day weeks as it did during St. Patrick’s week. On the holiday, most patrons ask for Guinness or Jameson whiskey, she said.

The four Limericks taverns in Alhambra, downtown L.A., Chino Hills and Upland use the same recipe. Liana Acevedo, manager of the Upland tavern, said their ingredients are simple “but well done.” They use Bailey Irish Cream, whipped cream, and cinnamon; customers, she said, choose their whiskey from a number of brands. They charge $10 but more depending on the whisky.

Bill Madden, owner of Silky Sullivan’s Irish Pub and Restaurant in Fountain Valley, said Irish Coffee was not invented in Ireland, but San Francisco. “And what we say is it was perfected in a place in Orange County called Silky Sullivan’s,” he said.

“We go to the four corners of the Earth,” said Madden. “It’s not just any black coffee. It is Kona coffee. So we go to Hawaii to get coffee,” which Madden says is a better blend for the drink. “From Mexico, Silky Sullivan’s uses organic blue agave syrup, so that’s where our sweetener comes from.” he said.

“Then we go to Ireland for the whiskey, but we use a blend (that) comes from the north, south and east of Ireland. We use Blackbush (from the oldest distillery in the world, says Madden), Red Breast, Jameson whiskey, and Knappogue Castle. We blend that mix to make the Irish whisky that goes in the Irish coffee itself.”

“We invented our own Irish cream with Bailey’s in it. So it’s a Baileys Irish whip cream that you can only get here, and that’s what makes us have the perfect Irish Coffee,” said Madden.

Before the pandemic, he estimated that in non-holiday times his tavern served anywhere from 15 to maybe 50 Irish Coffees, which are brewed to order. For the days before and after the holiday, it will serve 200 to 300 but the volume of business precludes individual brewing.

Irish Coffee is shown as it served at Muldoon’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach. (Courtesy of Muldoon’s Irish Pub)

Ashleigh Wiehl, marketing director at Muldoon’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach, said the tavern makes its Irish Coffee this way:Heat the empty coffee mug with hot water, and discard the water. Place powdered sugar on the rim. Pour Irish whiskey and Bols Dark Cocoa. Add fresh coffee and top with “fresh house-made farm whipping cream.”

Irish native Mary Murphy born in County Cork, has worked at Muldoon’s for more than 30 years.

“I have bartended in Cork and Muldoon’s and have made many an Irish Coffee at the pub and across the pond!” said Murphy. In Ireland, she said Irish Coffee is made this way:

Boil the kettle to make the coffee. (“Nowadays I’m sure they have a coffee maker!” said Murphy.)

Prepare a glass coffee mug by warming it with hot water. Pour in whiskey, add coffee and a little brown sugar, leave half an inch at top and with a tea-spoon gently pour the fresh farm whipping cream over the back of a spoon so there is a layer of cream floating on top.

Before the pandemic, Wiehl said during a typical St. Paddy’s week, Muldoons served about 280 Irish Coffees. In a regular week it makes about 110. It charges $13.

Irish Coffee is served at Malarky’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach. (Courtesy of Malarkey’s Irish Pub)

At Malarky’s Irish Pub in Newport Beach, General Manager Jeff Darden said he has “no idea” how its Irish Coffee recipe was devised, and “It’s just how it’s been done here forever.” (Malarky’s opened in 1977.)

Darden says the tavern makes its own cream. As for whiskey, he says customers will often ask for a particular type; if the choice is left up to the bartender, he says, “being an Irish bar, we’ll use Jameson, or Bushmills.” They also add brown sugar to the mix which is served in a 10-ounce glass coffee mug. While the price might vary, it usually charges $10.