In honor of this most Irish of holidays, how about a recipe for (what else?) a latte with an Irish twist. We’ve all heard of the classic “Irish Coffee”, but how here’s a great espresso-based version:
Ingredients:
1.5 oz. Irish Whiskey
1.5 oz. Irish Creme liqueur
1.5 oz. espresso
10 oz. cold milk or half-and-half
Combine the whiskey and the espresso in the bottom of the glass. Begin steaming the milk (or 1/2 & 1/2) as you would for a free-poured latte. When the milk is about 50-75% done steaming, pour in the Irish Creme. Pour the mixture over the espresso/whiskey mix in the glass and serve immediately.
Recipe from “yankeehatinactor” on the coffeegeek.com forums.
It all started with dancing goats.
All espresso drinks start with coffee beans. After all there is no such thing as an “espresso bean”. While some coffee bars may use a certain type of bean roasted in a certain way for their espresso, the term “espresso” actually refers to the way the coffee beans are prepared, forced through the beans under pressure to create a much more concentrated drink.
With that in mind, it’s worthwhile to an understanding of espresso drinks to learn a little something about coffee. There’s a great, informative and humorous comic that tells you everything you wanted to know and more about coffee on theoatmeal.com called 15(ish) Things Worth Knowing About Coffee.
It also breaks down some of the basic espresso drinks, including the caffe latte, mocha, the cappuccino, the americano, and the breve.
Oh, and as for the goats, it turns out that coffee was first discovered when Ethiopian shepherds noticed their goats becoming energetic and even “dancing”. The comic is full of great tidbits like that. It’s definitely worth checking out.
Photo: Mark Prince (Public Domain)
Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to the espresso drinks blog! Over the next several weeks we’ll be taking a look at all things rich, frothy and delicious.
The logical place to start would be to define what we mean by “espresso drinks”. Espresso drinks are any drinks such as lattes, mochas, and cappuccinos.
