The great, great, great, great grandson of the founder of Guinness Brewery.

Like many Americans with Irish heritage, I don’t think much about being Irish until March 17 rolls around. When I was a kid, Mom would make corned beef (get yours from Market House Meats) and colcannon, and we’d call Grandpa and beg him to “talk Irish” to us (Top o’ the marnin to ya, me darlin’. May God bless ye and the devil take ye, etc.). But those childhood memories are missing an essential ingredient to celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.

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If you think any drink involving “bombing” is only for frat boys or people who don’t appreciate the nuance of a beverage, you really must try an Irish Car Bomb. Pour a half ounce of Irish cream into a shot glass. Then fill the other half with whiskey; it’ll float on top, all pretty like. Now fill a pint glass about two-thirds full with Guinness.* Hold the full shot glass over the pint glass. Take a deep breath, gently drop the shot into the glass, and chug. To avoid a mess, drop your bomb(s) in the kitchen, over the sink. Politics of the name aside, this drink is an adventure. It’s a race against time and chemistry: You must get the liquids past your taste buds before the cream has time to curdle. If you do it right, the flavor is a dream, the barley richness mixing with the sweet creaminess, and the whiskey sharpness rounding it out.

Also recommended: chocolate Guinness cake with cream cheese frosting (you can bake it while you listen to this).

* Did anyone see Mr. Guinness at the parade on Saturday? Check out the picture of him with Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger in 1968 at his castle in Ireland after the jump.

Desmond Guinness with Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger, 1968
  • The great, great, great, great grandson of the founder of Guinness Brewery.

24 replies on “Car Bombs and Cake”

  1. Call me “Mr. Fussy”, but I’ve always had trouble with the concept of dropping a glass in a glass. If you just like, dump the shot out into the glass and then immediately drink it, does that work too?

  2. No.

    6 of those will have a young lad or lassy sleeping on the lawn in Missoula in early December, or so I’m told.

  3. Maybe it’s the weight of the shot glass that takes the cream/whiskey mixture down to the bottom of the pint glass, in theory mixing it? Probably wouldn’t have the same effect if you just poured everything into a tall glass…

    But yeah, those things are Delicious! And Dangerous!!

    I also like me a nice Black’n’Tan on this day… or any other…. 😉

  4. My Irish pal used to say “hey you wanna see my old Irish grandfather’s typical Irish dance?” Getting nods of approval at a party he’d then stumble about and fall onto the onlookers while singing oh paddy boy.

    it’s hard to imagine norwegians making fun of themselves. The faux modesty facade totally prevents it.

    The Irish aren’t afflicted with reserve.

  6. I think I’ll be doing shots of Jager tonight. Yeah, I know it’s not Irish, but it comes in a green bottle, right? Close enough for me.

  7. Politics of the name, indeed. A few years ago in NYC, I tried to order a round of Irish Car Bombs, to which the the bartender replied angrily, “We don’t serve them. Why don’t you go to that bar over the street and order a Pakastani Bus Bomb?”

  9. @1- Have I got a story for you: I saw an acquaintance get hauled away from a bar in an ambulance after drinking shards of the shot glass that broke. I know my tale reeks a little of urban legend, but it happened in front of me, nonetheless.

    @7- I’ve seen a bartender refuse to serve those on the same merits. The bartender was English, and a friend of mine, and quite possible just fucking with people, but again, it still happened.

    And before Fnarf gets her, I’m going to say that “Jimmy Jimmy” is probably the Undertones FOURTH best song, at best.

  10. Let me please, please bestow a bit of former-bartender sacred knowledge:

    -Technically, a standard shot glass SHOULD be 1.5 oz, so at most the glass be 1/3 full with Bailey’s. Sorry to nit-pick, but if the shot glass has a super thick bottom, you are probably being cheated.

    -Avoid spillage when dropping the shot glass into the pint by tilting both at an angle, allowing the shot glass to slide down the side of the pint instead of just plopping to the bottom. No kitchen sink required.

  12. @7, there’s a bartender I’d like to buy a drink for. Car bomb = not funny. Dropping, chugging, exploding, foaming, curdling drinks = amateur hour, frat boy, kid stuff.

    Sit quietly and drink your Guinness or your whiskey like a man, or a woman; just behave yourself, that’s all. NO VOMITING. I was vomited on by a leprechaun on St. Paddy’s day once (yes, really) and it’s NOT OKAY.

    But you will. All of you people will glug this shit down and barf green shit all over the sidewalk. Jackasses.

    Bailey’s is delicious (every bottle contains the entire body of Christ, I’ve heard) but it’s about as Irish as a plastic green bowler hat.

  13. It’s “Amateur Hour,” Fnarf. Today and New Years. Oh, I’m drinking right now (it’s after 5:00 here), but I’ll avoid going out and mingling with the great, unwashed, drunken masses today.

  17. At my party last weekend, I did an Irish Car Bomb with a woman from North Ireland. She likes the drink, but agrees that trying to order one in a Belfast pub might be like going into a bar in New York and ordering something called a “9/11.”

  23. When I tend bar (every Thursday–shit next year that’ll be St. Patrick’s), I refuse to serve these. My metaphor: why don’t you go to Lower Manhattan and order a drink called Hijacked Airliners? I also will not make Black-and-Tans, given that those were the British paramilitary forces who burned down much of Cork City in the Anglo-Irish War, so named because their uniforms were partially regular Army khaki and partly irregular black. I’ve had people walk out of the bar in a huff, and it was more than worth it.

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