My friend the Mead shares a lot of things with me: Joel Stickley’s excellence, delight in the Inky Fool, all manner of Scottish and Irish music, the occasional road trip, and more often than not, new drink recipes worth trying. Sometimes they call for ingredients beyond my pantry’s ken, but on occasion I have the necessary on hand.
Last month, she sent this:
Irish Kiss
2 ½ oz Jameson Irish Whiskey
1 oz lemon simple syrup
Dash of bitters
Combine in a shaker with ice. Shake well and serve up.
Fairly simple-looking, is it not? Indeed. But wait.
Here’s how to make the lemon simple syrup:
Zest 2 lemons (using a microplane) into a small sauce pan. Juice the lemons into a measuring cup. Remove the seeds. Note the amount of juice and add it to the pan. Add the same amount of sugar. Bring to a boil. Stir and then allow to cool.
The syrup alone sent LR and me into raptures, never mind mixing it with whiskey or using it to top ice cream (which, it turns out, is a stellar plan, especially if one dashes some grapefruit bitters here and there). The syrup is like a homemade sherbet lemon without fake coloring, or like a lemon meringue pie with no effort. It is lemon custard with no guilt. It is Turkish Delight without betraying your siblings or covering your clothing in confectioner’s sugar.
[Please note that as this was an experimental effort, and in order to avoid passing the point of hilarity, we split the drink in half. Typically it would be served in a cocktail glass or perhaps a coupe.]
Mixed with Jameson and bitters? Delicious. We should only hope that an Irishman’s kiss would be delightful as this drink!
Cocktail Phalanx 
I WANT. I WANT SO MUCH.
Muahaha, I knew you would approve!
I can say from personal experience that an Irish kiss is a delightful thing.
Now I just need to try the drink to compare.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaat.
Details.
errr…. I don’t exactly know how to detail such a thing. I guess I’ll say that the amount of scruff present would have pleased Beatrice (from Much Ado, don’t you know). As for me, I ask you, friend, what’s a girl to do? Cuz his hair was black and his eyes were blue.
I will assume he hails from Galway until I hear otherwise.
Dublin. But I’ll see if I can find another one when I’m in Galway next week. 😀
I *have* met a Galway boy, but not only did he not have black hair but he is a friar(!), so just no.