In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d post my version of a good old fashioned Irish coffee. It’s really not that different from the traditional version. I just switch a few things to make it a little lighter. For the record, this is a sweet drink, sort of on par with a mocha. So if that’s not your thing, and you like your coffee black, you might just add Irish whiskey to your mug and call it a day (with, the coffee, I mean…or not.) 🙂

Now I like rum a whole lot more than I like Irish whiskey. My sister will probably harass me endlessly for saying that, since she consistently reads my posts and loves Irish whiskey more than anyone I know. A true Irish lass, to be sure, to be sure. But in my Irish coffee, I swap rum for whiskey (cue the thunderbolts, I shall be stricken down)!

Might have something to do with the fact that we have rum in our cabinet, and not whiskey…

I also use Irish cream, which is included in some Irish coffee recipes, and not others. Some use Kahlua. Some just stick to the whiskey. They mix their coffee and whiskey, and top with whipping cream mixed with a bit of coffee. They poor it carefully in a glass and make it look like a Guinness beer. Clever, sure, but I have a sweet tooth, and I love Irish cream, so…what can I say? It’s in my recipe.

Let’s talk about the shamrock. In order to get the look, I poured half a serving into a small glass, topped it with all two tablespoons of the whipped cream, and then stenciled on the shamrock using unsweetened cocoa. For the stencil, I simply printed this shamrock onto card stock, cut it out, and placed it directly onto the whipped cream. Then I sprinkled on the cocoa with my fingers. If you do this, make sure it’s touching the whipped cream or the stencil won’t turn out.

On a side note, I took a sip of the glass in the picture after my makeshift photography session, and the cocoa was pretty strong. It actually made me cough a bit. So if you want to do this because you’ve got people coming over and you want to put out a nice presentation, I’d do the shamrock on one glass, put it in the center of your tray, then put your guests’ drinks around it.

Yields: 1 serving
Cook time: Allotted time for brewing coffee.

Ingredients:

1 cup brewed hot coffee
1 oz Irish cream, such as Bailey’s
1 oz rum, such as Captain Morgan’s Private Stock
1 packet Truvia, or other stevia sweetener
2 Tablespoons fat free whipped cream
Unsweetened cocoa for garnish (optional)

Directions:

Pour coffee into a glass or mug. Add Irish cream, rum, and Truvia. Stir and top with whipped cream. Sprinkle on cocoa garnish using a shamrock stencil if desired.

Nutrition Facts:

Nutrition Disclaimer: I am not a certified nutritionist…these are just the calculations I’m pretty sure are close to correct. I use SparkRecipes to generate my information.

Calories: 163.8
Total Fat: 3.9g
Saturated Fat: 2.4g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 5mg
Potassium: 116.2mg
Total Carbohydrate: 11.7g
Dietary Fiber: 0g
Sugars: 6.4g
Protein: 1.2g

Dietary Exchange: 2⅓ Fat and 1 Starch serving
Jenny Craig: 2⅓ Fat, 1 Free (the coffee), and 1 Limited Free (the whipped cream).
Weight Watchers: 6 SmartPoints, 2 PointsPlus, 4 Previous Points  (using calculatorcat.com).