Irish Cocktail

A classic pre-Prohibition cocktail from 1900 featuring Irish whiskey enhanced with subtle absinthe, maraschino, and curacao notes.

The Irish Cocktail is a pre-Prohibition stirred whiskey preparation combining Irish whiskey with absinthe, maraschino liqueur, orange curaçao, and Angostura bitters — a multi-ingredient formula documented in the major cocktail manuals of the early 20th century. Harry Johnson included a version in his Bartenders' Manual (revised edition 1900), one of the foundational professional reference documents of American cocktail culture. The recipe also appeared in Harry MacElhone's Barflies and Cocktails (1927), published in Paris where MacElhone ran Harry's New York Bar on Rue Daunou, and in Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), the most comprehensive inter-war cocktail guide. Boker's Bitters — specified in several of the historical versions — was one of the most widely used bitters of the pre-Prohibition era, created by Johann Gottlieb Boker in New York in the 1820s and produced continuously until Prohibition disrupted commercial bitters production. Boker's was reconstructed in 2009 by Adam Elmegirab using historical flavor descriptions, making authentic-style versions of the Irish Cocktail possible once more. The combination of Irish whiskey's smooth grain character with absinthe's anise aromatic, maraschino's cherry-almond sweetness, and curaçao's orange provides a pre-Prohibition complexity.