Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Other Whiskey Cocktails

Eye Opener

Eye Opener cocktail in a rocks glass with white froth, served next to coffee beans

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog

Whiskey and coffee are friends. The two magical liquids merge in classic drinks like the Irish Coffee and are regularly combined in mugs—sometimes discreetly—to fortify oneself against cold mornings.

The Eye Opener cocktail adds another fun ingredient: beer. To make this trifecta of vices, Jameson brand ambassador Killian Lee uses Jameson Caskmates, an Irish whiskey that begins its life as regular triple-distilled Jameson before it’s finished in stout beer casks. The whiskey is full of notes of orchard fruits, milk chocolate, cocoa beans and butterscotch, with a long and sweet finish.

The "eye-opening" part of the drink comes from the addition of cold-brew coffee, a caffeinated pick-me-up that will jumpstart your morning—or whenever you decide the time is right for a cocktail. The whiskey and coffee duo is complemented by DIY ginger–brown-sugar syrup for a touch of spice and sweetness, and it’s all topped with a bit of stout beer, which lends flavor and effervescence while complementing the stout-aged whiskey.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces Jameson Caskmates whiskey

  • 3/4 ounce ginger–brown-sugar syrup*

  • 3 ounces cold-brew coffee

  • 1 ounce stout beer

Steps

  1. Add the whiskey, ginger-brown-sugar syrup and cold-brew coffee into a mixing tin and stir until well-chilled.

  2. Strain into a rocks or mini stout glass.

  3. Dry-shake (without ice) the stout, and add to the top of the cocktail.

*Ginger-brown-sugar syrup: Combine equal parts fresh ginger juice with dark brown sugar in a blender, and blend until fully incorporated.