Day 65: Charlie Foxtrot

Drink me, I'm Irish Charlie

In case you didn’t know, St. Patrick’s Day is later this week.  We decided not to do a full theme week since we didn’t think of it in time but we thought we could have a few Irish-themed drinks anyway to get us in the party mood.   We start off with the Irish Charlie, a shooter made from Irish cream liqueur and crème de menthe.  After thorough research we determined that this drink is called the Irish Charlie because that was the nickname of former president of Ireland Charles De Gaulle.  To make this drink into an Irish Charlie Sheen you substitute crazy for the crème de menthe.

We used Bailey’s Irish Cream, the best selling liqueur in the world. We have already covered the special relationship between Baileys and Irish cows but we wanted to learn if there were other reasons it was so popular.  I broke out my Ultimate Encyclopedia of Wine, Beer, Spirits, and Liqueurs and learned that Baileys is the “kind of soft svelte drink that unscrupulous boys plied unsuspecting girls with in nightclubs.”  I can see why that would make it popular.  I wish I had known that when I was in college. It probably would have been more effective than my standard technique of begging and sobbing.  That is also the technique I used if I ever convinced an unsuspecting girl to come back to my apartment.

As far as the drink itself, it was only so-so. The Baileys mostly overwhelmed our taste buds leaving only a hint of mint remaining.  Neither Mrs. Bottle nor I are huge fans of Baileys so this wasn’t our favorite outcome.  It wasn’t terrible, but it isn’t something I would make again.  If you like Baileys and mint you will likely enjoy it.  If you don’t, you probably won’t. You can’t get that kind of review just anywhere.

Using fresh Baileys might help, too.  Baileys has a shelf life of 30 months and I thought ours was probably older than that.  I found the expiration date on our bottle:

This is 2011. 12/2002 is 98 months ago.  98! If that date is 30 months past the purchase date our bottle is over 10 years old.  I think that might actually qualify as an antique.  That might be okay for a bottle of Scotch or fine wine, but this stuff is made with cream.  From happy cows!  I’m no food scientist, but maybe one that was fresh would taste better.  And be less likely to kill us.

Overall Rating for the Irish Charlie

Taste: 3

Presentation: 2

Ease of Preparation: 4

Drinks Until Blackout: 5 –  24% alcohol

Ingredients

1 oz Irish Cream Liqueur

1 oz Crème de Menthe