Sunday 1/25 is National Irish Coffee Day, and we’re excited to announce our very first cryptid-themed coffee mocktail—The Dobhar Chú (pronounced doh-war-koo), a delicious non-alcoholic version of the Irish original. This hot and hearty drink is named after the gargantuan beast (sometimes referred to as the King Otter) that is said to have once lurked beneath the surface of Glenade Lake in County Leitrim. Come enjoy a hot (or cold, if you’re crazy like that) NA Irish coffee to celebrate with us!

“Sometimes known as the King Otter, the dobhar-chú is a gargantuan beast said to have once lurked beneath the surface of Glenade Lake in Glenade Valley, Co. Leitrim. A headstone, found in the nearby Conwall Cemetary, bears an image of its likeness. Dating back to September 1722, this headstone marks the burial site of Grace Connolly, a woman became the tragic victim of the King Otter while washing her clothes on the shore of the lake one morning.

“Though the story of the Glenade Lake dobhar-chú is easily the creature’s most famous appearance in Irish mythohistory, it’s far from the only one. In the 1896 edition of The Journal of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, a reader, Ms. Walkington, wrote a letter that described her sighting of a creature ‘half-wolfdog, half-fish.’ Her letter was responded to some time later by Mr. H. Chinchester Hart, who had heard stories of a creature identical to what she described. He called him ‘The king of all lakes and father of all otters,’ and claimed he could ‘run his muzzle through rocks.’

“In the year 2000, renowned Irish artist Sean Corcoran reported witnessing the appearance of a dobhar-chú in a lake while visiting Connemara’s Omey Island with his wife. He said, ‘The creature swam the width of the lake from west to east in what seemed like a matter of seconds.’ After doing so, it gave ‘the most haunting screech’ he had ever heard, and disappeared into the water.”

(Source: FolkloreThursday.com)