Irish Coffee: A Brooke Van Gory Christmas tradition

Since Krissi is buried under Help Hank orders, and fundraising, I decided to give her a hand with her post this week. Here in the BVG house, we do not have many traditions when it comes to the holidays. Most of this stems from the amazing workload I have on holiday orders during the month of December. But thinking back, there is ONE single tradition that has been a staple in my family since I can remember.  Irish Coffee on Christmas morning. Everyone comes back from church excited to get into the gift unwrapping, but first, we all eat breakfast, and the adults dive into this Irish classic.

Mind you, *I* never drink the stuff. Whiskey makes my TOES curl. So, in the past few years, Brooke has been the designated Irish Coffee creator for everyone else. I am pretty much a pro at this point.

Ingredients:
Sugar
Fresh, hot coffee
Whipped cream (I actually HAVE used my own in the past, but the canned stuff rocks, and sits on top better)
Irish whiskey (Bushmills or Jameson)

Now....... not all Irish whiskey is created the same, and if you are a whiskey drinker, you will know the firm line that is drawn between the two Irish whiskeys. Not all the legends are true, though, as you can read here... but I am from a huge Irish Catholic family, so Jameson is the ONLY whiskey we will ever have in the house, no Bushmills will ever cross our thresholds.

The other thing you might want to have, is Irish coffee glasses. Ours are from Ireland, and are family heirlooms brought back by my parents from their wedding. They usually have them at specialty stores, and the prices range depending on what quality you want.  Ours are Baleek and are quite pricy, but they have these that I also have as a backup set on the cheap at World Market. Again, this is not a necessity, and in  pinch, I have also used regular coffee mugs.

For the mixing of the actual drink, you need to start off with your glasses, all the ingredients, a shot glass, and a spoon.
1. scoop one spoonful of sugar into the bottom of the glass.
2. Pour one shot of whiskey, and pour it directly on top of the sugar.
3. Fill the rest of the glass with hot coffee, leaving about an inch at the top.
4. Take your whipped cream can in one hand, and your spoon in the other hand.
5. Squeeze the whipped cream out do that it hits the BACK of the spoon before it hits the surface of the coffee. This is called "tempering" and will make your whipped cream sit nicely on top of the hot drink!

So there you have it, the Brooke Van Gory traditional Christmas Morning drink! This is really awesome for any cold winter day to warm you up, my hubby likes it after he is done shoveling out of our Chicago blizzards. ;)

What holiday traditions do you have in your family? Feel free to tell us in the comments, ot let us know on our Facebook page!

Brooke is the owner and seamstress at Brooke Van Gory Designs. She lives in The Chicago suburbs with her two kiddos, and her rock star husband! You can shop BVG here, and follow her on Google+ here.