For readers who want to shake this one up themselves, I've already done the homework: here's the full list of ingredients, bottle by bottle. Now, the story behind the glass.
The Irish Coffee was born on a stormy night in 1943, at Foynes Port in Ireland, the transatlantic seaplane hub before Shannon Airport was built. After a flight was forced to turn back, a group of frozen American passengers arrived at the airport restaurant, and chef Joe Sheridan improvised: hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar and a float of cream. When asked if it was Brazilian coffee, he replied: "No, it's Irish coffee."
The drink crossed the Atlantic in 1952, when journalist Stanton Delaplane of the San Francisco Chronicle, struck by the recipe, had it reproduced at the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco, which still serves it today at the pace of roughly 2,000 cups per day. A global phenomenon born from a simple gesture of hospitality.
If the story has tempted you to try this cocktail at home, don't underestimate the role of equipment. A complete barman kit like this one on Amazon gives you all the basic professional tools in one go. And for a more ambitious setup, a professional cocktail bar station is the piece of furniture that takes home bartending to the next level.