Do you know which city holds the second largest St. Patrick’s Day Parade in the country*? Scranton, PA. Yes, home to Dunder Mifflin Paper Company, Inc. (of The Office fame) and a big annual parade that’s been held since 1962. Scranton’s parade is always hosted the weekend before St. Patrick’s Day which helps to get you in the spirit early.
Ed and I were fortunate to attend for the second year in a row thanks to the gracious invitation of our friends, Michelle and John M. Michele and I started working together on the very same day almost 20 years ago. Parade Day (we make it a weekend) provides a great excuse for us to get together each year (and for our Villanova grad school husbands to watch the Big East Tournament – thankfully Villanova won again this year!).
Not going to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade? No worries, this Irish-inspired drink will help put you in the spirit (notice the pun?). The Irish Wolfhound comes to me by way of the Jameson Irish Whiskey website (thank you to our friend, JJ, for the inspiration).
It’s a refreshing cocktail made with whiskey, ginger beer, grapefruit juice and a bit of smoked sea salt. It’s a combination of smooth, spicy and tart topped off with a bit of smoke and salt. For the cocktail connoisseurs out there, this is technically a mule or a buck as it is made with ginger beer and citrus fruit – in this case grapefruit juice. I dipped a grapefruit wedge in a bit of salt, but you can also rim the glass (like a margarita) for more flavor. Thank you to my sister, Sarah S, for adding Maldon’s Smoked Sea Salt Flakes to my salt collection. Ed and I agreed that it would make a good summer time drink, too, although this is a good time of year for freshly squeezed grapefruit.
If you’re looking for something different to try this year to celebrate the holiday when everyone is Irish, I’d recommend trying an Irish Wolfhound.
* For cities with a population over 50,000 as measured by participants per population of the city. In case you were wondering, Savannah, GA is the largest parade in this category. Cheers to George S for knowing that Savannah topped Scranton.
Gluten-Free/Wheat-Free Note: Jameson Irish Whiskey’s FAQ says “Yes, Jameson is gluten free and is therefore suitable for a celiac to drink. This is because the distillation removes any residual cereal protein. Also, no wheat paste is used in sealing our barrels.” If you have a sensitivity to whiskey, you may may want not want to risk it (some are fine, while others may not be).
| Irish Wolfhound Cocktail | | Print |
- 2 ounces Irish Whiskey (such as Jameson Irish Whiskey)
- 2 ounces ginger beer (non-alcoholic)
- 1 ounce freshly squeezed pink or ruby red grapefruit juice
- Garnish: 2 grapefruit wedges
- Smoked sea salt (such as Maldon's Smoked Sea Salt Flakes)
- In a double-old fashioned glass filled with ice, add whiskey, ginger beer and grapefruit juice and stir.
- Put sea salt on a small plate and dip tip of one grapefruit wedge into salt. Place salted wedge in glass. Place other wedge on glass rim.
- Optional: Apply salt to rim of glass. Use a grapefruit slice to wet rim and place on a plate of salt (salt should stick to glass rim).
Source: Adapted from Jameson Irish Whiskey
Excellent, Nicole~! And fortunately, no stray doggy hairs from this namesake to interrupt the enjoyment of an otherwise curious and delightful concoction. For a brief time at Penn, I dated a nursing student from Maryland, blonde and about your size, who kept one of her TWO Great Danes (this one was white with black splotches – like a Dalmatian) in her off-campus apartment. Dang dog was bigger’n she was! I suspect I was lucky he tolerated me.
Dad – Ha, I’ve never heard that story! Great Danes are so huge! I saw one “stuffed” in a Land Rover once in a parking lot. The poor dog looked hilarious. Fortunately this is a tasty drink.