Baby Guinness
A Baby Guinness is a shot of coffee liqueur with a layer of Irish cream floated on top, so it looks like a tiny pint of stout: 30ml of cold coffee liqueur in a shot glass, then 10ml of Irish cream poured slowly over the back of a spoon. There is no Guinness in it. The name comes from the look. It is drunk in one, so the cream and the coffee arrive together. It tastes of sweet coffee and cream with little burn, because the two liqueurs are around 20% and 17% ABV, and the shot holds about 0.8 UK units. No one has a documented claim to it. It became a standard round in Irish pubs and beyond, and the only skill in it is the float: cold liqueur and a slow pour keep the head sharp.
Glassware: Shot Glass
Garnish: The head is the garnish
Ingredients
30ml
The body of the pint. Kahlúa and Tia Maria are the usual choices, typically 16 to 25% ABV. Chill it: cold liqueur gives the cream a firmer base to sit on.
10ml
The head. Baileys is the most familiar bottle, at 17% ABV. It is less dense than coffee liqueur, so poured gently it floats. It contains milk, so the shot is not dairy-free.
Instructions
Chill the coffee liqueur, and the shot glass if you can.
Pour 30ml of coffee liqueur into the shot glass.
Hold a teaspoon upside down just over the surface, resting against the glass.
Pour 10ml of Irish cream slowly over the back of the spoon so it settles on top.
Serve at once and drink it in one.
Our version
Recipes vary around three parts coffee liqueur to one of Irish cream. Ours is 30ml to 10ml, which fits a standard shot glass with a clear head on top.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Chill the coffee liqueur. Irish cream floats on it either way, but cold liqueur is thicker and gives the cream a firmer base, and a cold glass helps too. With warm liqueur the cream breaks through and clouds the body. Pour the cream over the back of a teaspoon held just over the surface and resting against the glass wall. Go slowly. The spoon spreads the cream sideways so it settles on top instead of plunging in. Stop at 10ml. More cream and the shot looks less like stout; less and the head is too thin to see.
Behind the Baby Guinness
Flavour Profile
The Look Is the Point
A Baby Guinness takes its name from how it looks. Dark coffee liqueur fills most of a shot glass and a pale layer of Irish cream sits on top, so from across the bar it reads as a pint of stout made small. There is no beer in it.
It is a shooter, made to be taken in one. Most recipes put the coffee liqueur and Irish cream at about three to one, and the version here is 30ml to 10ml. The usual bottles are Kahlúa or Tia Maria for the body and Baileys for the head.
Where It Comes From
No bar or bartender is on record as its creator, and no date is attached to it. It became a familiar round in Irish pubs and well beyond them, which is as much as can be said with confidence.
Some bars swap the coffee liqueur for black sambuca. That keeps the colour and changes the drink, bringing it close to a Slippery Nipple.
The Float
The layer works because Irish cream is less dense than coffee liqueur. Poured straight in, it still plunges through and clouds the body before it settles. Poured slowly over the back of a spoon, it spreads across the surface and stays there.
Cold helps. Chilled coffee liqueur is thicker and gives the cream a firmer base, and a cold glass slows any mixing. The head loses its sharp edge within a few minutes, so build the shot just before it is drunk.
Three Layered Shots
Three layered liqueur shots
Baby Guinness
- Layers
- 30ml coffee liqueur, 10ml Irish cream
- UK units
- 0.8
B-52
- Layers
- 15ml each of coffee liqueur, Irish cream and Grand Marnier
- UK units
- 1.2
Slippery Nipple
- Layers
- 25ml sambuca, 25ml Irish cream
- UK units
- 1.4
| Shot | Layers | UK units |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Guinness | 30ml coffee liqueur, 10ml Irish cream | 0.8 |
| B-52 | 15ml each of coffee liqueur, Irish cream and Grand Marnier | 1.2 |
| Slippery Nipple | 25ml sambuca, 25ml Irish cream | 1.4 |
The B-52 is the next step up: the same two bottles with orange liqueur on top, three layers instead of two.
How Strong It Is
With the coffee liqueur at 20% ABV and the Irish cream at 17%, a Baby Guinness carries about 0.8 UK units. It tastes like a dessert and goes down in one, which makes rounds of them easy to lose count of.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Coffee LiqueurCoffee liqueur is spirit flavoured with coffee and sweetened, usually bottled at 16 to 25% ABV: Kahlúa is 16% in the UK and Tia Maria 20%, and our recipe units take 20% unless a line names the bottle. It brings roast and sugar in one pour, so it seasons and sweetens at once. It is the liqueur in the Espresso Martini, the Black and White Russian and the layered coffee shots.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in a Baby Guinness shot?
Is there Guinness in a Baby Guinness?
How strong is a Baby Guinness?
How do you get the Irish cream to float?
How much Irish cream goes on a Baby Guinness?
Do you sip or shoot a Baby Guinness?
Is a Baby Guinness the same as a B-52?
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B-52
A B-52 is a layered shot: 15ml of coffee liqueur, then 15ml of Irish cream floated on it, then 15ml of Grand Marnier floated on that, built in a chilled shot glass and taken in one. About 1.2 UK units. The Irish cream contains milk. Its origin is not well documented. The usual account credits Peter Fich, head bartender at the Banff Springs Hotel in Alberta, who named his new drinks after bands, albums and songs he liked; this one, the story goes, after the B-52’s. It is also traced to the Keg Steakhouse in Calgary in 1977, and to Maxwell’s Plum in New York. The three settle in that order because each is lighter than the one under it. Cold bottles, a bar spoon and a slow hand are all the build needs. Drunk in one, the top layer arrives first: orange, then cream, then coffee.
Slippery Nipple
A Slippery Nipple is a layered shot of sambuca and Irish cream: 25ml of chilled white sambuca at the bottom of a shot glass and 25ml of Irish cream layered on it, poured gently over an upturned spoon. A drop of grenadine, sunk to the base before the cream goes on, is an optional extra that shows as a red dot under the clear sambuca. It is usually placed among the novelty shots of the 1980s. Nobody has claimed it, and the name was plainly chosen for the laugh at the bar. The drink is better than the joke: aniseed under cool cream tastes something like a liquorice sweet. It is taken in one, so both layers arrive together. A shot holds about 1.4 UK units, and the Irish cream contains milk.
Espresso Martini
An Espresso Martini is 50ml of vodka, 30ml of Kahlúa, 10ml of sugar syrup and one freshly pulled espresso of about 30ml, shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled martini glass, with three coffee beans laid on the foam. About 2.5 UK units, and the caffeine of a single shot. Dick Bradsell is usually credited with it, at the Soho Brasserie in London around 1983. His account was of a model who asked for a drink to wake her up and then mess her up; he never said who she was. The measures are the IBA’s. Vodka gives strength and cold without flavour, so the coffee leads. The foam comes from the crema of a shot pulled moments before the shake, which is why the espresso goes in last.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 9 October 2026