Top St Patrick’s Day cocktails

With St Patrick’s Day celebrations taking place around the world this week, we’ve gathered some uniquely Celtic cocktail recipes that are sure to get the party started. Sláinte!

The Irish, according to Sigmund Freud, are the only people on earth that are immune to psychoanalysis.

What they are not immune to, however, is the sight of a well-made drink, especially if its served in their honour.

So bartenders of the world, take note of the following recipes.

Because if one thing is certain, it’s that no matter where you are on the planet – from Boston to Belfast, Dublin to Dubai – the Irish diaspora spreads far and wide, and they’ll be out in force to toast St. Patrick this week.

So click through and discover some unique celtic cocktails that will be sure to get your St Patrick’s Day guests celebrating…

The following recipes have been provided by the good folks at Knappogue Castle Single Malt Irish Whiskey and Clontarf 1014 Irish Whiskey (who enlisted New York bartenders Joaquín Simó and Dale DeGroff for help).

Emerald Old Fashioned

Ingredients

2oz Knappogue Castle 12 year Single Malt Irish Whiskey

1tsp honey syrup (2 parts wildflower honey: 1 part water)

1tsp Green Chartreuse

1 tsp Dolin Génépy des Alpes

Method

Add all ingredients into a rocks glass. Add ice and stir briskly until chilled and just combined. Garnish with a mint sprig, spanked and inserted

“The Emerald Old Fashioned is my attempt to bring civility and deliciousness back to a holiday desecrated with green beer and disrespectfully-named shots [read ‘Irish Car Bomb’],” says Joaquín Simó of New York’s Pouring Ribbons.

Dead Rabbit Irish Coffee

Ingredients

1.5oz Clontarf 1014 blended Irish Whiskey

4oz hot Caro De Minas Birch Coffee

0.5oz Demerara sugar syrup

Heavy cream

Method

Beginning with the coffee, pour all ingredients (not including the cream) into an 8oz stemmed glass and gently stir

Hand whip the cream so that it still pours

Using the back of the bar spoon to guide, float the cream on top of the coffee

“I’m Italian mostly but I’ve enjoyed the luck of the Irish at exactly the moments I most needed it,” says Dale DeGroff of Irish institution the Dead Rabbit in New York, describing it as “the world’s best Irish coffee”.

Whoops-a-Daisy 

Ingredients

2 oz. Knappogue Castle Single Malt Irish Whiskey 12yr

2 oz. Chamomile Tea

3/4 oz. lemon Juice

3/4 oz. orange sherbet

2 dashes Absinthe

2 dashes Bittermens Boston Bittahs .25oz. Kings ginger Liqueur

Bar spoon Combier Rose

Method

Add all ingredients (excluding the chamomile tea) to a mixing tin.

Add ice and shake.

Double strain into an ice filled highball glass.

Top with 2oz. of chamomile tea.

Garnish with an orange slice. 

Red Rebel

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz. Clontarf Irish Whiskey

3/4 oz. sugar syrup

3/4 oz. Dubonnet Rouge

1/4 oz. Saint Germain

1/2 oz. pomegranate juice

1/2 oz. lime juice

2 dashes DR Orinoco bitters

2 mint leaves

Fentimans Tonic

Lime wedge

Method

Shake ingredients over ice.

Double strain into ice filled highball.

Top with tonic and lime wedge.

Celtic Frappe

Ingredients

2 oz.s Celtic Honey Liqueur

1 oz.  lime juice

3/4 oz. Dolin Blanc

1/4 oz. Pernod Pastis

1/2 oz. orange sherbet

Dash Peychauds bitters

Garnish Orange peel

Method

Add ingredients to shaker tin and fill with ice.

Shake and double strain into

Old fashioned glass and fill with crushed ice.

Express orange oils over glass.

Garnish with peel. 

Vickers Valiant

Ingredients

1 1/2 oz. Boru Irish Vodka

1/2 oz. Celtic Honey

1/4 oz. suze

1/2 oz. Creme D’framboise

3/4 oz. lime juice

1/4 oz. sugar syrup

Grapefruit soda

Grapefruit peel

Method

Shake ingredients over ice

Double strain into cocktail glass

Top with splash of grapefruit soda

Garnish with grapefruit peel. 

Berry Barracuda

Ingredients

2 oz. Knappogue Castle Single Malt Irish Whiskey 12yr

3/4 oz. strawberry syrup

1/2 oz. Lillet rose

1/2 oz. Fino Sherry

2 dash OBW

Method

Bar spoon aged balsamic vinegar

Shake all ingredients over ice.

Double strain into cocktail glass.

Garnish with strawberry.