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The Irish Maid is a refreshing, herbaceous cocktail starring Irish whiskey, elderflower liqueur, lemon, and cucumber. Easy to make at home, it’s a perfect drink to impress any time of the year!
I am a sucker for anything with St Germain, so it’s no surprise this drink won me over in a heartbeat. The Irish Maid cocktail is a refreshing Irish whiskey cocktail starring the fresh flavors of lemon, cucumber, and elderflower liqueur.
It’s perfectly balanced between sweet and tart, with floral and botanical notes that shine through, and it’s just boozy enough. In fact, it might just be my perfect style of drink. Here’s a bit more about the drink and how to make it!
Ingredients You’ll Need
The Irish Maid cocktail is a drink starring Irish whiskey, St Germain elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, and cucumber. It’s a play on the Kentucky Maid, a bourbon-based drink created in 2005 at New York’s Milk and Honey by bartender Sam Ross. Ross is the face behind other modern classics like the Paper Plane and the Penicillin, and he’s known for his riffs on classic cocktails with unique twists.
So it’s no surprise the Irish Maid cocktail is similar to an old classic, the Whiskey Smash. Instead of muddling mint, though, you’ll muddle a few slices of cucumber to bring herbaceous notes into the drink. Here are the ingredients for an Irish Maid drink:
- Cucumber
- Irish whiskey
- St Germain elderflower liqueur
- Lemon juice
- Simple syrup
More About Irish Whiskey
Irish whiskey is a type of whiskey made in Ireland. It has a light, mellow flavor compared to other types of whiskey, like bourbon, rye, or Scotch. Irish whiskey was once the most popular spirit in the world, but it went into decline starting in the 1900’s. It came back in the 1990’s and has been on the rise ever since. There are four major types of Irish whiskey:
- Irish single malt
- Single pot still
- Single grain Irish
- Blended Irish
Irish whiskey tastes light and fruity, with a lightly floral scent and hints of vanilla. It’s the easiest to drink of all types of whiskey, making a great intro for drinkers new to whiskey. Aging makes a more sophisticated flavor profile, with signature oak and caramel flavors.
Brands of Irish Whiskey
Jameson whiskey is the best-selling brand of Irish whiskey in the world, and is what I used in this Irish Maid cocktail. It’s a blended whiskey introduced in 1780 in Dublin and made from a blend of single-grain and single-pot-still whiskeys. There’s no peat incorporated in the manufacturing process, so the whiskey has no smoky or spicy notes like a Scotch whisky.
There are many more brands in each of the four categories above. Some popular Irish whiskey brands are The Dead Rabbit, Teeling, Bushmills, Redbreast, Green Spot, Tullamore, and Powers.
More About St Germain
The other liquor you’ll need for an Irish Maid cocktail is St Germain. This is a bottle I recommend for every home mixologist’s collection! St Germain is a liqueur that’s made with elderflowers, the small white flowers of an elderberry plant. The flavor is light, sweetly floral, and fragrant. It’s hard to describe until you taste it! It adds a unique, smooth finish to cocktails.
The vintage-looking bottle makes it seem like it has hundreds of years of history, but St Germain was invented in 2007! That’s right, a guy named Rob invented it in 2007. (Here’s the story behind it.)
How to Make an Irish Maid Cocktail
The Irish Maid cocktail is easy to make. All you need is a muddler and a cocktail shaker. Use a muddler to muddle the cucumber to release its oils and juices, then shake with ice and strain into a glass. Here is the basic idea (or head to the recipe below):
- Muddle the cucumber slices: Place 3 cucumber slices into a cocktail shaker and muddle (gently mash) them a few times.
- Shake: Add 2 oz whiskey, ½ oz St Germain, and ¾ oz simple syrup. Add 1 handful of ice and shake until cold.
- Strain: Strain into a lowball glass filled with clear ice. If desired, garnish with a cucumber slice and lemon wheel or wedge.
Elevate With Clear Ice
I love stepping up the presentation of this cocktail by adding clear ice! Clear ice is crystal clear ice that is frozen directionally, so it forms perfectly clear ice crystals. You can then cut it into large cubes or organic shapes, elevating your cocktails to the next level! It also melts more slowly, keeping the drink cold without diluting it as much as normal ice cubes.
To make it, go to my tutorial on How to Make Clear Ice.
Irish Maid Cocktail
The Irish Maid is a refreshing, herbaceous cocktail starring Irish whiskey, elderflower liqueur, lemon, and cucumber. Easy to make at home, it’s a perfect drink to impress any time of the year!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 drink 1x
- Category: Cocktail
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: Cocktail
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
- 3 slices cucumber, plus more for garnish
- 2 ounces* Irish whiskey
- ½ ounce St Germain elderflower liqueur
- ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
- ¾ ounce simple syrup
- Clear ice, for serving
Instructions
- Add the cucumber slices to a cocktail shaker and muddle them (gently mash) to release the juices.
- Add the Irish whiskey, St Germain, lemon juice, and simple syrup and fill the shaker with 1 handful ice.
- Fill a lowball glass with clear ice. Shake until cold and strain into a glass. If desired, garnish with a cucumber slice and lemon wedge.
Notes
*To convert to tablespoons, 1 ounce = 2 tablespoons
Let us know if you have any questions!