The Tipperary Cocktail For St. Patrick’s Day
If you’re Irish, part Irish or not Irish at all-but-just-like to-show-your-allegiance-to-the Irish-once-a-year-Irish, we have the perfect drink for you to enjoy on St. Patrick’s Day: the Tipperary cocktail. It’s an ideal way to toast the Emerald Isle and demonstrate your longing for the Old Sod.
The name of this revered drink references a popular song that debuted in 1912. In it, a love-sick Irishman stuck in London bemoans being separated from his girl so far away in County Tipperary, Ireland. It became a hit during World War I when millions of soldiers wistfully sang its title refrain “It’s a long way to Tipperary,” no matter where they were from. It might have seemed more appropriate had the drink been born in a café in war-torn , rather than far from the hostilities in a New York City saloon. It’s one of the earliest and tastiest of Irish whiskey drinks. It is also among the more intricate creations of the vermouth/whiskey cocktail genre.
But, wait, you say, isn’t Irish Coffee the classic Hibernian quaff? No. That congregation of caffeine and spirit is far younger, created 30 years later, after another world war had ed. Furthermore, while warming and undeniably delicious, the coffee content tends to overwhelm the nuances of some of the more delicate Irish whiskeys now emerging.
The Tipperary introduces Irish whiskey to sweet vermouth and Chartreuse, the latter being a complex and bracing liqueur made for centuries by the Carthusian monks of . From an Irish soldier’s point of view, it could have brought together memories of his distant island home with exotic notions of the European continent. Making the concoction even more appropriate for the holiday is that Chartreuse is green—albeit not Kelly green, but the yellowish green shade more common to ill-advised bride’s-maid dresses.
The origin story goes that in 1916 a patron entered a Manhattan bar, humming the namesake “Tipperary” tune, and asked for “something Irish.” The bartender (ironically a German expat) obliged with a drink he created on the spot and later included in his 1917 tome Recipes For Mixed Drinks. The book, by Hugo R. Ensslin, is now highly regarded as one of the last American cocktail primers to be published before Prohibition.
Ensslin’s original Tipperary contained equal parts of Irish whiskey, aperitif and liqueur. Subsequent iterations have used more modern, whiskey-forward ratios, such as 4 parts Irish, 2 parts vermouth, 1 part Chartreuse. (There are also other cocktails that use the name “Tipperary” but for some bizarre reason are made with gin, rather than whiskey. Avoid these.)
Making the Tipperary allows you to explore the many subtleties coming out of Ireland these days. For decades, the whiskey choices had been reduced to but two Irish distilleries (New Midleton and Old Bushmills). And blends were the dominant output. But with the worldwide whiskey resurgence, dozens of new makers have emerged on the island and the old stalwarts have worked to create new variants that have given us widened choices. Consider Teeling’s Blackpitts Peated Single Malt, for example. Even though it’s smoky, it’s endowed with fruit (orange and apples) and caramel notes. Sexton, another single malt, also brims with fruit, but adds nuts and herbs.
Special aging treatments and grain mixes also make for a fine choice when mixing up this drink. Tullamore D.E.W. 14-year-old is finished in Bourbon, Port, sherry and Madeira casks. Red Breast Single Pot Still Cuatro Barriles is aged in sherry, Port, Bourbon and virgin oak casks. Writers’ Tears Double Oak uses Cognac and Bourbon vessels. Bushmills Single Malt 21 is nuance itself with caramel, toffee, maple and raisins. Clonakilty Single Pot Still comes from a mix of malted and unmalted barley, and produces notes of vanilla, chocolate, pears and spices.
With such a vast array of choices being readily available, perhaps the ingredient hardest to source for this cocktail today is Chartreuse, which has become a darling of the bartending world. The monks who keep the 400-year-old recipe secret refuse to increase production just to service a current trend. If you can’t find it, Izzara, a liqueur from ’s Basque region, makes for a reasonable substitute.
While Italian sweet vermouth is called for in the original—and most of the subsequent—recipes, if you want to use the dry version it is not heresy. What may seem heretical in retrospect is the drink’s garnish. It’s a just a fruit twist, but its color—orange—is questionable given the color’s symbolism to the subsequent troubles on the island. But that the newly made Republic proudly sports both green and orange on its flag in the spirit of unity. And besides, oranges—the fruit—are in season right now.
Tipperary
2 oz. fine Irish whiskey
1 oz. sweet vermouth
½ oz. green Chartreuse (or substitute Izzara)
Two dashes aromatic bitters
Twist of orange
Combine whiskey, vermouth, liqueur and bitters in a mixing glass over ice. Stir to mix and chill to your preference. Strain into a cocktail glass. Twist an orange peel above it to express oils and drop the rind into the drink as a garnish.
