Irish Maid
An Irish Maid is 50ml of Irish whiskey, 25ml of elderflower liqueur and 25ml of fresh lemon juice, shaken hard with four slices of pressed cucumber and double strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with a cucumber ribbon. About 2.5 UK units. The elderflower liqueur is the only sweetener. It is the Irish whiskey branch of the Maid family. Sam Ross made the Kentucky Maid at Milk & Honey in New York, which Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, dates to 2005, and its gin sister the Old Maid to 2004: bourbon, lime, sugar syrup, mint and cucumber. Change the base and the name follows, so gin makes an Old Maid. Difford’s Guide prints an Irish Maid it credits to Jack McGarry of The Dead Rabbit, also in New York; we found no source for who poured the first. Ours leaves out the sugar syrup that most versions carry and lets 25ml of elderflower do the sweetening. That keeps the drink drier and puts the flower in front, with the cucumber cooling the finish and the lemon holding it in line.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Cucumber ribbon cut lengthways with a peeler, run down the inside of the glass
Ingredients
4 slices
Fresh and sliced thin. The flesh gives the cool smell the drink is built on; the skin, if it is torn, gives bitterness.
50ml
A soft blended Irish whiskey at 40% ABV. Its light fruit sits between the cucumber and the flower, where a heavy, spicy whiskey would push both aside.
25ml
At about 20% ABV, and the drink’s only sweetener. Measure it: at 25ml it already does the work a sugar syrup would.
25ml
Squeezed the same day. It matches the liqueur measure for measure, which keeps the drink a dry whiskey sour rather than a floral one.
Instructions
Press four slices of cucumber firmly in the base of a shaker.
Add the Irish whiskey, elderflower liqueur and lemon juice.
Fill with ice and shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds.
Double strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
Run a cucumber ribbon down the inside of the glass.
Our version
Difford’s Guide prints 60ml of Irish whiskey, 15ml of elderflower liqueur, 20ml of lemon and 10ml of sugar syrup over two slices of cucumber. Ours drops the syrup, raises the elderflower and lemon to 25ml each and pours 50ml of whiskey, for a drier drink with the flower in front.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 10 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Press the cucumber; do not grind it. Two or three firm pushes release the juice and the cool, green smell. Grinding tears the skin, and torn skin turns the drink bitter in a way that no amount of shaking takes back out. Keep the elderflower and the lemon level at 25ml each. There is no syrup, so the liqueur is all of the sugar: pour more and it turns floral and sticky, pour less and the lemon takes over. Double strain onto fresh ice. The fine mesh keeps out seeds and green flecks, and the ice you shook with is already half melted and would thin the drink within minutes.
Behind the Irish Maid
Flavour Profile
Sam Ross’s Maid Template
Difford’s Guide says Sam Ross made the Kentucky Maid at Milk & Honey in New York in 2005: bourbon, lime, sugar syrup, mint and cucumber, shaken and served over ice. VinePair calls the Old Maid, with Hayman’s London Dry gin in an otherwise identical spec, its sister. In our reading it became a template: gin in the base makes an Old Maid, and Irish whiskey makes an Irish Maid.
We found no source for who first made the Irish version. Difford’s Guide prints a recipe adapted from one created by Jack McGarry at The Dead Rabbit in New York. It moves the citrus to lemon, retires the mint and brings in elderflower liqueur.
Elderflower Takes the Place of Mint
Bourbon is sweet and heavy with oak, so the Kentucky Maid uses mint to cool it. Irish whiskey is lighter and fruitier and needs less cooling. Elderflower suits it better: the perfume sits on the whiskey’s orchard fruit, and the cucumber still cools the finish.
The liqueur brings sugar as well as scent, which is why ours drops the syrup. Twenty-five millilitres of elderflower liqueur against the same of lemon is a balanced sour on its own.
A Soft Whiskey Suits It
A blended Irish whiskey at 40% ABV is the right pour. Its light grain holds the middle without pushing the cucumber aside. Save the richer, spicier bottles for an Emerald or a Tipperary, where the whiskey is meant to lead.
The Printed Recipe and Ours
Difford’s Guide’s Irish Maid and ours
Irish whiskey
- Printed recipe
- 60ml
- Ours
- 50ml
Elderflower liqueur
- Printed recipe
- 15ml
- Ours
- 25ml
Fresh lemon juice
- Printed recipe
- 20ml
- Ours
- 25ml
Sugar syrup
- Printed recipe
- 10ml
- Ours
- None
Cucumber
- Printed recipe
- Two slices, muddled
- Ours
- Four slices, pressed
Service
- Printed recipe
- Strained over ice
- Ours
- Double strained over fresh ice
UK units
- Printed recipe
- About 2.7
- Ours
- About 2.5
| Element | Printed recipe | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Irish whiskey | 60ml | 50ml |
| Elderflower liqueur | 15ml | 25ml |
| Fresh lemon juice | 20ml | 25ml |
| Sugar syrup | 10ml | None |
| Cucumber | Two slices, muddled | Four slices, pressed |
| Service | Strained over ice | Double strained over fresh ice |
| UK units | About 2.7 | About 2.5 |
How to Serve It
Over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with a ribbon of cucumber pressed against the inside where it scents each sip. It suits a warm afternoon, before food.
For cucumber and mint on gin and lime, try an Eastside; for bourbon with honey and lemon, a Gold Rush; for bourbon, mint and lemon, a Whiskey Smash.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Irish)Irish whiskey is whiskey distilled on the island of Ireland and aged there in wood for three years or longer, and bottled at no less than 40% ABV. The Irish Whiskey technical file names four types, pot still, malt, grain and blended, and the soft blends are what our nine Irish recipes mostly use. The Irish Whiskey technical file calls triple distillation the traditional practice, not a rule, and specifies unpeated malt only for pot still whiskey.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is in an Irish Maid?
Who created the Irish Maid?
What separates it from a Kentucky Maid?
Do I have to muddle the cucumber?
What can I use instead of elderflower liqueur?
Which Irish whiskey works best?
How strong is an Irish Maid?
Sources.
Correct as of 18 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Irish Maid” (secondary source: adapted from a recipe created by Jack McGarry at The Dead Rabbit, New York; 60ml Irish whiskey, 15ml elderflower liqueur, 20ml lemon juice, 10ml sugar syrup, two slices of cucumber, muddled).
- Difford’s Guide, “Kentucky Maid” (secondary source: adapted from a recipe created in 2005 by Sam Ross at Milk & Honey, New York).
- Difford’s Guide, “Old Maid” (secondary source: created in 2004 by Sam Ross at Milk & Honey, New York).
- VinePair, “The Story Behind The Kentucky Maid” (secondary source: Ross, between 2004 and 2007, invented the Kentucky Maid and its sister the Old Maid (London Maid), with Hayman’s London Dry gin).
- LWC, “St-Germain 70cl” (UK wholesaler listing: 20% ABV).
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Gold Rush
A Gold Rush is 60ml bourbon, 22.5ml fresh lemon juice and 22.5ml honey syrup, made with twice as much honey as warm water. Shake it hard for 10 to 12 seconds, strain it onto a single big cube in a rocks glass and finish with a lemon twist. About 2.4 UK units. Punch credits T.J. Siegal, at Milk & Honey in New York, with the idea sometime in 2000, and VinePair dates the drink to 2001. T.J. Siegal, a friend of the owner, Sasha Petraske, ordered his usual Whiskey Sour and asked for it without the egg white and with honey syrup in place of sugar. The change stuck, and the drink became a modern standard. Honey does more than sweeten. It tastes faintly of flowers and wax, gives the drink weight that sugar syrup cannot, and sits comfortably with the vanilla and caramel in bourbon. With no egg and no bitters, the Gold Rush is plainer and heavier than a Whiskey Sour, and quicker to make.
Eastside
An Eastside is 60ml of gin, 25ml of fresh lime juice and 20ml of simple syrup, with three slices of cucumber and six mint leaves pressed gently in the shaker first. It is shaken hard for 10 to 12 seconds and double strained into a chilled coupe, with a cucumber ribbon to finish. About 2.4 UK units. It is a Southside with two changes: lime where the Southside takes lemon, and cucumber, which adds a green, watery coolness under the mint. Difford’s Guide says George Delgado created it in 2004 at Libation in New York, originally as a long drink, and VinePair notes a competing account that credits Chad Solomon. The care goes into the muddling. Press the cucumber enough to release its juice and the mint only enough to bruise it. Torn mint tastes bitter and grassy, and no amount of syrup covers it.
Whiskey Smash
A Whiskey Smash is 60ml of bourbon, three lemon wedges, 20ml of sugar syrup and eight mint leaves. The lemon is muddled hard with the syrup and the mint pressed gently, then everything is shaken hard with ice for 10 to 12 seconds and strained over crushed ice in a rocks glass, with a mint sprig. About 2.4 UK units. Jerry Thomas’s bar guide of 1862, in the Internet Archive’s scan, describes the smash as “simply a julep on a small plan”. Punch dates Dale DeGroff’s fresh-fruit Whiskey Smash to 1988 at the Rainbow Room in New York, muddling lemon into the julep’s mint, sugar and whiskey. Muddled wedges put the oil from the peel into the drink as well as the juice. That is what separates a smash from a whiskey sour over crushed ice. Our measures are larger and drier than DeGroff’s published recipe, which adds water.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 18 October 2026