Cigar Aficionado

Once upon a late St. Patrick’s Day evening, two companions and I changed our orders from pints of Smithwick’s ale to mugs of Irish Coffee, and an argument ensued. I posited that the point of mixing coffee and whiskey was to stay up later and drink more spirit. On my left came the opinion that whiskey was meant to reduce the jangled nerves from the caffeine. The third view was that the coffee was meant to warm you on the walk home. As is often the case, we got to the bottom of more glasses than we got closer to the bottom of the conundrum. Each position has its merits, but the third has an anecdotal backing. The story goes that passengers on airboats to Europe in the …