Twenty years ago, I was an undergrad smitten with Joyce, Wilde and Yeats. My plan was to spend that summer in Dublin studying Irish literature — and falling in love with a cozy, back-street pub, where I’d settle in every evening to drink a few pints and tinker with the terrible poems in my notebook. Maybe I’d meet a real Irish poet and fall for him too.

It was an eventful summer. I met my poet at the pub I dreamed about, where I quickly acquired a taste for Irish whiskey. Neither supersweet upfront (like many bourbons) nor smoky (like certain single-malt Scotches), it was the perfect middle path. I still loved dark, creamy stout — but a nip of stronger stuff on the side somehow made it even more delicious. Jameson’s easygoing, vanilla-tinged tang — there was no too-muchness about it — was, and is, the right counterpoint to Guinness’s earthy, deep, just-bitter-enough flavor and richness. It was great warm too, and not just for coffee. One woman I befriended drank only hot whiskey, even on unusually balmy Dublin afternoons. When I questioned her about this, she snapped, “You drink coffee in the summer, don’t you?” By August, I didn’t mind a hot whiskey at the end of the day myself.

The poet and I are still friends, and Irish whiskey has remained my unfussy, constant companion. Some whiskey snobs scoff at Jameson, but there are good reasons that it’s ubiquitous (the most popular shot, by far, at most New York bars I frequent): it’s mellow and friendly and easy to be around, kind of the golden retriever of spirits. But beyond Jameson (and Bushmills and Powers), Irish whiskey options in the U.S. are now plentiful: from Cork’s humble Paddy (my first choice for a hot whiskey — I suspect because it has an unusually fruity, zesty flavor) to Tyrconnell (an Irish single malt that’s lovely for sipping and a great value at about $35) to Greenore (a small-batch whiskey — the 8-year-old variety costs about $40 — whose pale golden hue hardly suggests the appeal it should offer bourbon drinkers). Both the 12- and 15-year Redbreast offerings (which run between $50 and $75) have plenty of spice and fruit.

If your idea of the perfect St. Patrick’s Day drink order will always be a pint of stout and a neat whiskey on the side, go for it; I’ll start off with the same. But Irish whiskey can also mix it up like the best of them, something I’d seldom say for Scotch, which can be overbearing. A Redbreast sour? That’s a delicious way to celebrate the 17th of March.