This post is part of a partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey! For more cocktail recipes to get you in the Irish spirit this St. Patrick’s Day, visit JamesonWhiskey.com.
I want to preface this post with the fact that am in no way an expert in all things Irish, I didn’t even know I was Irish until I was ten years old! However, over the years as I studied more history and started to travel more, I became fascinated with Irish culture and learned how to use food and drink as a way to explore cultures both new and familiar. When I was approached to make some cocktails using Jameson Irish whiskey, I thought it would be such a treat to make an Irish dinner for friends in the city and pair it with Irish whiskey cocktails!
Sean and I spent all of last Saturday prepping for the the most Irish meal that our Irish-American selves could prepare. We planned the whole menu around a cookbook I’ve got written by an American who married an Irishman and went to live with him on his farm in Ireland. Before digging into the book, Sean and I planned to make an Irish dinner of corned beef and cabbage. Turns out, this is NOT what people in Ireland do on St. Patrick’s Day, they treat it more like our Thanksgiving feast. Corned beef and cabbage is for days when you feel like eating like a pauper. Who knew! \o/
The menu:
- -Cheese
- -Roasted ginger pork loin with cider gravy
- -Mashed potatoes with cabbage
- -Roasted parsnips in olive oil and maple syrup
- -Irish soda bread
- -Walnut and espresso cake
And then for the Jameson cocktails! We started the night with Jameson Original and a pared-down version of a drink from one of my favorite Irish bars in the city.
Simple Morning Reviver
-
1.5oz Green Tea-Infused Jameson Original
.75oz lime sherbet (Recipe below)
1oz apple juice
Fresh nutmeg to garnish
Directions:
Infuse 1 pinch of green tea for 5-10 hours in the amount of whiskey you need to make your cocktails. Strain tea leaves before shaking whiskey in your cocktail.
To make the lime sherbet, zest three limes with a microplane into 1 cup of sugar. Muddle the zest so that you get as much oil from the zest as possible into the sugar. Let sit for 3 hours, up to 24. In a small sauce pan, add the juice from the limes with 3oz of water and heat until the sugar becomes simple syrup. Strain out the peel and set aside to cool.
Add all ingredients except for the nutmeg to a shaker with ice. Shake, strain, and serve with nutmeg grated on top! I actually made this cocktail earlier in the afternoon and stored it in my punch bowl/covered casserole dish until it was time to shake and serve!
After we served the first cocktail, we ate (a lot) of cheese. Our friend Trevor brought a very ambitious selection of cheeses for everyone to try. After the cheese it was time to serve the second cocktail!
For the second drink, I used Jameson Black Barrel. The difference between Black Barrel and Jameson Original is that while the whiskey is still matured in a mixture of sherry casks and bourbon barrels, the Black Barrel whiskey is aged in twice-charred barrels. To me, it tastes a bit spicier and more flavorful.
With Jameson Black Barrel, I chose to make a drink based on an experience Sean and I had when we were visiting Killarney National Park in Ireland. Sean and I stayed at this incredible Airbnb with a woman who greeted us at the door with, “Tea, wine, or whiskey?” We chose whiskey (duh) and spent the whole night spellbound by her stories of Ireland’s history and tales of her garden in the backyard.
Wine, Tea, or Whiskey?
- 2oz Jameson Black Barrel
1oz Lemon Juice
.75oz Ginger Liqueur Infused with tea
Float of Red Wine
Infuse tea in ginger liqueur for 3-10 hours. (I used chamomile!) Mix all ingredients except for the red wine in a shaker with ice. Shake, strain, and serve in a coupe glass. Float a bit of wine over the back of a spoon & serve!
After we drank our second cocktail, everyone prepared to sit down at the table for dinner. We turned on some diddlydee, John gave some Irish dance instructions that he picked up from his sister, and poured some wine to drink with the meal.
After dinner, I went with a sturdier cocktail to end the night. I also chose this drink to drink on ~actual~ St. Patrick’s Day because it’s about as Irish as you can get in drink form. This year St. Patrick’s Day also happens to fall on Match Day, which is the time when medical students (like my husband, Sean) find out where they’ll be placed for residency. To match the big news, I thought it fitting to go with a big-flavor cocktail. I found an interesting recipe on the Jameson site that mixed a stout beer syrup and whiskey and I decided to add a bit of nutmeg and some orange bitters to take it to the next dimension!
For this cocktail I also went with Jameson Caskmates, which is Jameson that’s been finished in stout-seasoned whiskey casks.
The Match Day
- 2oz Jameson Caskmates
1oz Stout syrup
Dash Orange bitters
Orange peel for garnish
Directions:
To make the stout syrup, simply mix 1 part stout to 1 part caster sugar in a saucepan. Warm up the mixture until the sugar is dissolved! For the cocktail, mix all ingredients and stir with ice. Pour into a Nick & Nora glass or a coupe!
This cocktail completely surprised me. It was so smooth and dessert-like, but it wasn’t very sweet at the same time. And it’s SO SIMPLE. It paired perfectly with the walnut cake at the end of the night.
Overall, the night was such a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick’s day and bring together new and old friends alike. 10/10 would do this again in a heartbeat. 🙂
This post is part of a partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey! For more cocktail recipes to get you in the Irish spirit to celebrate with friends this St. Patrick’s Day, visit JamesonWhiskey.com.
