For a while now I have had this desire to go to a restaurant and, upon being asked if I would like anything to drink, respond with, "Gimme a coffee, and make it irish" in a gruff voice. I'm not sure where this came from, but it has come up sporadically in my mind over the last couple of months.

This silly scenario will never actually occur for a few different reasons. One, I am very polite and would never order like that. Two, my voice is anything but gruff. Three, I cannot tolerate coffee after 11am unless I want to be up all night. And lastly, irish coffee will likely always have dairy in it.

I did actually visit Herbivore in Berkeley not too long ago and noticed Irish coffee on the menu. However, it was 11:00 at night and so the first three rules came into play.

Recently I bought a bottle of Bailey's Irish Creme and made my own Irish coffee at home. However, the suspicious lack of ingredients on the bottle and the artifical sweetness of the liquid ensured that I didn't want to buy it again any time soon.

Today I tried to come up with my own version of Irish coffee, and I think the recipe is a good starter to play with.

Irish coffee

Ingredients
1/2 cup brewed coffee
1 bottle Irish whiskey
2 cups vanilla almond milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg

Instructions

Mix almond milk, vanilla extract, and spices in a blender to get them nice and frothy. You'll need about 1 cup of milk per mug.

Pour 1/4 cu coffee into each mug
Add 1.5 Tbsp whiskey to each mug (or more to taste)
Fill to top with almond blended mixture
Sprinkle cinnamon on top

Serves two

This is a rough recipe that I am working with for now. The Duck and I really liked this as it has just a hint of alcohol and sweetness, and the coffee comes through nice and strong.

Enjoy!