Irish Liqueurs

There’s more to Irish liqueurs than the classic Irish cream liqueur poured over ice. Ireland also dabbles in whiskey liqueurs sweetened with honey and cold-brewed coffee liqueurs among other varieties.

Cream is the classic, but not the only way in

The best known style blends Irish whiskey with fresh cream and chocolate or cocoa into something rich enough to sip neat or pour over ice cream. Baileys is the one everyone knows - it's the world's best-selling cream liqueur, but plenty of others take the same idea and run with it, swapping in honey, strawberry or even poitín alongside the whiskey and cream.

Plenty of Irish liqueurs skip the cream entirely

Some stick closer to the whiskey itself, sweetened with honey and a touch of herbs rather than dairy. Others are built around coffee. Irish whiskey cold-brewed with coffee beans for about a week makes a liqueur strong enough to carry an Irish coffee without drowning it in sugar. Layered versions split white chocolate and coffee liqueur into the same glass. There's honey liqueur made with Irish whiskey and honey harvested from orchards. And there are gin liqueurs too: an Irish gin infused with pineapple and ginger, or rhubarb and ginger, bottled at liqueur strength. One Irish take on amaro macerates rosehip, strawberry leaf and caraway against a bitter base, balanced with raspberry and tonka bean.