Irish Coffee Caramel Ice Cream with Shaved Dark Chocolate and Candied Pecans

It has buttery, smoky caramel, a dash of coffee grinds, and a generous helping of whisky for good measure. It's a bracing combination, but oh does it work. First you taste the coffee, roasted and rich, with the pleasant bitterness of an actual cup of joe. Then comes the caramel to sweeten things up just a tad, melting to sweet buttery goodness. Then the whisky: the more ice cream you eat, the more you taste it.

Just-Do-Ya (Hazelnut-Spiked Irish Coffee With Chocolate Whipped Cream)

Chocolate, hazelnut, and coffee all pair up beautifully. For the alcohol, that means Frangelico, a hazelnut-infused liqueur; for the whipped cream, a good dose of Dutch-process cocoa powder.

Bittersweet Amaro- and Whiskey-Spiked Coffee

Bourbon-spiked coffee gets a bittersweet flavor from caramelly Amaro Averna and herbal, citrusy Gran Classico.

Guinness, Whiskey, and Baileys Hot Chocolate

The key to great roasty Guinness flavor? Reduce it on the stovetop into a concentrated syrup first.

Everything Nice (Spiced-Rum Coffee With Butterscotch Whipped Cream)

In this variation on a classic Irish coffee, spiced rum takes the place of whiskey, lending its sweet, spiced caramel flavor to the coffee's roasted, bitter bite.

Irish Cocktail

This classic drink is similar to the Improved Holland Gin Cocktail, but uses Irish whiskey instead of malty genever.

Improved Iced Coffee

Mike Treffehn of The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. in Philadelphia created this delicious bourbon-spiked iced coffee.

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (Fernet-Spiked Irish Coffee With Lemon Cream)

For those who love the minty-bitter flavor of Fernet Branca, this riff on a classic Irish coffee is sure to blow your socks off. Here, fernet's strong medicinal kick is boosted with a wonderfully perky lemon whipped cream, resulting in a potent, energizing brew with loud, bright flavors.

Hot Coffee Grog

If there's been one simple message that's come out of the Four Loko hullaballoo, it's that mixing caffeine and alcohol is a bad idea. Now that this preliminary is out of the way, let's get down to doing that very thing. There are plenty of versions of the Hot Coffee Grog floating around in the booze world. Some contain cream or butter (or, in one tiki-fied version, coconut cream), and some are laced with a range of liqueurs.

DIY Coffee Liqueur

DIY coffee liqueur tastes like like a fresh cup of coffee with added depth from rum and just enough sugar to make it great for sipping or mixing—or baking and dessert garnishing.