How to Make an Irish Breakfast, the Whiskey Sour With a Burst of Orange

The Irish Breakfast isn’t what it sounds like.

It’s not breakfast, to start, and it has nothing to do with the famous tea. Given the cultural stereotypes of the Irish in general and St. Patrick’s Day in particular, I suspect the most frequent use of the term “Irish Breakfast” is applied ironically to a pint of Guinness before noon. But the Irish Breakfast we’re talking about today is an unusually bright and refreshing cocktail, one of the very few neo-classics with Irish Whiskey that we have, and in light of such a meager supply, one that—it can and has been argued—every bartender should be familiar with.

“Irish Whiskey is another spirit that is tragically under-represented in cocktailing,” wrote Chris Lowder in 2016. Lowder is as talented and knowledgeable a bartender as exists in the world, and after running some of the best bars in New York became a hospitality consultant, installing beverage programs all around the globe (he also speaks Mandarin and Japanese). Every new place he went, especially cities without thriving cocktail cultures, he began to notice a pattern: The bartenders were largely educated on books, so they’d know the menu drinks and could make a few off-menu favorites or classics, but there are whole spirit categories for which the classic cocktail canon is conspicuously sparse, and therefore the bar team had no answers. What happens if a guest comes in and asks for, say, a shaken cocktail with Irish Whiskey? Or another one, or another one? This is an education problem, and he endeavored to create a solution.

The result is a spectacularly useful document, a compendium of three refreshing and three spirituous cocktails with every base spirit available, and which, even though he does this professionally, he decided nonetheless to put online for free. “It didn’t feel fair,” he says looking back, “what about the bartenders in smaller towns or other countries who didn’t have [N.Y.C.’s] network access?” There aren’t many free sources of cocktail information where you’re certain you can trust the recipes, but Lowder’s site is one of them (we’d humbly suggest that Robb Report is another). There’s 178 recipes there, “a starter kit,” he says, “all stuff I had served a hundred times,” and all repeatedly and reliably delicious.

This brings us back to the Irish Breakfast. There are a few cocktails that fly under the banner of “Irish Breakfast,” but this is certainly the best, a combination of Irish Whiskey, lemon juice, orange liqueur, and orange marmalade. Lowder insists that he didn’t invent it himself, though his seems to be the first instance of it in print, but in any case, it is clean, bright, and delicious, and plays perfectly into Irish whiskey’s inherent gifts. Irish whiskey tends to be light and mild, a touch malty, and not too tannic or oaky, and the Irish Breakfast leans into it elegantly—the light breadiness of the whiskey is the perfect foil for the rich orange notes of the liqueur and marmalade, while the relative lack of tannins obviate the need for an egg white, and the marmalade adds a juicy, candied punch. It’s a great choice for St. Patrick’s Day of course, or for really any time you need to pull out a refreshing Irish Whiskey cocktail, or even yes, if you insist, for breakfast.

Irish Breakfast

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker and add ice. No need to stir, shaking will mix everything just fine. Shake hard for eight to 10 seconds and strain up into a chilled Martini or coupe glass, and garnish with an orange peel.

NOTES IN INGREDIENTS

Proportions: Lowder’s proportions are slightly different: 1.75 oz. Irish whiskey, 0.5 oz. each of lemon and Cointreau, and no simple syrup. I disagree above not because I think his is in any way wrong, just a difference in style; his is an N.Y.C. style and mine is more West Coast, I suppose. His proportions will echo a Sidecar—tighter, drier, cleaner and boozier—while mine are juicier and more friendly. There is not a correct choice here, it’s just what you prefer.

Irish Whiskey: Irish whiskey as a category gets more interesting and diffuse by the day, but this particular cocktail is best with the classic style, which is to say, light, mild, and easy. Classics like Power’s, Tullamore D.E.W, Bushmills, or Jameson all work well, as do newcomers who echo that style, like Busker Triple Cask, Glendalough Double Barrel, or others.

Cointreau: Cointreau, on the other hand, is the correct choice, the cleanest and most precise of the “triple sec” family, which is an orange liqueur that’s vodka based as opposed to curacao, which is an orange liqueur that is brandy based. Yes, it’s two times more expensive than the cheap brand of triple sec it sits next to on the shelf, but it’s 10 times better, so the math is really on your side.

Simple Syrup: Equal parts sugar and water and stir until the sugar dissolves. It’s in a range here because your chosen brand of orange marmalade may vary in sweetness or acidity, so I use it to taste. To me, 0.25 oz. was both necessary and sufficient.

Orange Marmalade: This cocktail is essentially a Breakfast Martini but with Irish whiskey instead of gin, and our advice there holds here too: Marmalade is a major agent of complexity here, so different brands will absolutely produce different results. On the other hand, prescribing some specific artisanal orange marmalade seems absurd. I used the Bonne Maman Orange Marmalade (the one with the red and white checkered cap) because that was the best looking one at my local store. I suspect you follow the same logic, if not specifically the same brand.