Around 1900, the coffee cocktail menu in the Viennese cafés also included Kaisermelange, Maria Theresia, Biedermeier-Kaffee and a handful of other variations on the theme.

One version is attributed to a Joe Sheridan, head chef at the restaurant and coffee shop in the Foynes Airbase[1][2] flying boat terminal (about 15 kilometres or 9.3 miles from present-day Shannon Airport, County Clare).

[6][3][7] Stanton Delaplane, a travel writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, maintains he brought Irish coffee to the United States after drinking it at Shannon Airport.

[11] Irish whiskey and at least one level teaspoon of sugar are poured over black coffee and stirred in until fully dissolved.

[12] Thick cream is carefully poured over the back of a spoon initially held just above the surface of the coffee and gradually raised a little until the entire layer is floated.