Irish Spring

Irish whiskey and elderflower — the Emerald Isle name from Drennan (1795), and the US's 31 million Irish-ancestry citizens having driven St. Patrick's Day global.

Irish Spring is a cocktail whose name evokes Ireland's seasonal landscape at its most celebrated point — the country's transition from the muted greens of February into the vivid, rain-washed emerald of March and April, when St. Patrick's Day falls and the island's legendary green color is at its most culturally prominent. Ireland's Atlantic climate, dominated by the Gulf Stream's warming influence and the constant presence of moisture from the ocean, produces lush, consistently green grasslands that gave the island its Emerald Isle designation — a phrase first used by Belfast-born poet William Drennan in his 1795 poem When Erin First Rose and subsequently adopted into common usage. St. Patrick's Day, celebrated on March 17 as the feast day of Ireland's patron saint, has expanded far beyond its Irish origins to become one of the world's most widely observed national holidays outside the country of origin: cities on every continent turn fountains green, host parades, and decorate Irish-themed bars for the occasion. The American Irish diaspora — the United States has an estimated 31 million people claiming Irish ancestry, compared to Ireland's current population of approximately 5 million — was the primary driver of this globalization, with cities including New York, Boston, Chicago, and Savannah developing St. Patrick's Day traditions that became cultural institutions in their own right.