Maple Irish Coffee

Hot coffee, Irish whiskey, and maple syrup — Sheridan's 1943 Foynes creation with maple replacing sugar, the Buena Vista Café (1952) still serving 2,000 daily.

The Maple Irish Coffee is a seasonal variation on Joe Sheridan's 1943 creation at Foynes Airport, substituting maple syrup for the traditional white or brown sugar to add the caramelized complexity of North American maple to the Irish whiskey-and-coffee framework. Sheridan created the original Irish Coffee at the Foynes flying boat terminal in County Limerick to warm transatlantic passengers, and travel writer Stanton Delaplane subsequently introduced it to the Buena Vista Café in San Francisco on November 10, 1952, where it became nationally known. The Buena Vista Café still serves approximately 2,000 Irish Coffees daily. Pure maple syrup's over-sixty aromatic compounds — including sotolon, various Maillard reaction products, and caramelized sugars from the evaporation of sap — create a sweetness considerably more complex than plain sugar, and the warm, woody caramel notes of maple find coherent common ground with both Irish whiskey's grain warmth and coffee's roasted character. The combination is particularly appealing to northeastern American and Canadian consumers for whom maple syrup's regional identity adds cultural resonance to the preparation.