The Historical Irish Spirit That is Making a Comeback After 350 Years

“I used to be drunk from the ft up,” stated Colm Oates, laughing. We had been sitting within the nook of his Belfast pub, The Garrick, as he recalled his first style of poitín. “I attempted to face, however my legs didn’t get the message.”

Converse to any Belfast native about poitín — an historic, potent, and notoriously unlawful Irish spirit — and also you’ll hear tales of drinkers going blind, struggling reminiscence loss, or waking up in unseemly locations. However all that’s about to alter, as a result of now — after greater than 350 years — poitín is authorized once more. 

Each nice story begins in a bar. And in Belfast, poitín’s renaissance began in earnest at The Garrick — one of many metropolis’s oldest and most beloved pubs, radiating Victorian attraction from its heat, picket nooks. 

“Poitín was legalized right here in Northern Eire in 2015, but it surely took just a few years to achieve consciousness and momentum,” Oates defined as we sat by the pub’s crackling hearth. “Finally, we realized it wanted a superb supply methodology. Tequila took off due to the margarita, so we needed to discover poitín’s good cocktail.”

The reply was the Belfast Espresso: a dangerously scrumptious mix of poitín, chilly brew espresso, heavy cream, demerara sugar syrup, and nutmeg. Bearing greater than a passing resemblance to a tiny pint of Guinness, the cocktail drinks someplace between a chilly Irish espresso and a creamy espresso martini. 

“We labored with an area producer, Bán Poitín, and began serving the Belfast Espresso in March 2024,“ Oates stated. “That was our lightbulb second. Rapidly, individuals had been queuing up on the bar to order it.” 

The preliminary wariness round poitín (pronounced “pot-sheen”) was comprehensible. Banned by the British authorities in 1661, Eire’s distinctive twist on moonshine by no means actually went away, being distilled in secret throughout Eire and steadily shared at large household occasions in unmarked bottles. Because of this, high quality, style, and power all assorted wildly from fiery and full-bodied to blow-your-head-off unhealthy.

Mercifully, legalization means stricter controls over the as soon as illicit firewater, with a rising band {of professional} distilleries on each side of the Irish border — together with Echlinville, Killowen, and Mad March Hare — now producing trendy, blended poitín that drinks like high-end mezcal or tequila at an eminently extra manageable 40-45 % ABV. 

One of many oldest alcoholic spirits on this planet, poitín dates again to the sixth century, when Irish monks began distilling it from malted barley, with apples and later sugar beets and potatoes added for taste. Thought-about the precursor to Irish whiskey, its title interprets to “little pot” in Gaelic — a reference to the tiny copper stills during which it is historically made.   

As a premium white spirit, one among authorized poitín’s nice strengths is its versatility — a facet that bartenders and mixologists are actually having enjoyable with throughout Belfast. Following The Garrick’s success, different well-liked pubs like The Material Ear have additionally began serving the Belfast Espresso, whereas venues like Rattlebag and Whites Tavern are providing their very own cheeky twists on the classics, from poitín sours to poitín spritzes. In the meantime, one of many metropolis’s slickest cocktail temples, The Service provider Cocktail Bar, has two authentic poitín drinks on its menu: Rounded, which is a sublime homage to the boulevardier, and Fiery, an extended, spicy quantity that blends smoky Killowen poitín with ginger beer, lemon juice, and soda water for a scrumptious end with distinct echoes of the Darkish and Stormy. 

One of many world’s nice ingesting cities, Belfast and its charming, chaotic pub scene is an ideal breeding floor for poitín’s revival — one thing that Dave Mulligan, the proprietor of Bán Poitín, famous whereas perfecting the Belfast Espresso recipe. 

“Belfast is the one metropolis in Eire that may by no means be twee,” stated Mulligan. “Identical to poitín, it has a singular edge and character to it.” 

Mulligan owns his personal cocktail venue, Bar 1661, in Dublin, which is known as after the 12 months of the poitín ban. Down within the Republic of Eire, poitín was decriminalized in 1997, which, Mulligan stated, laid the groundwork for the newer legalization in Northern Eire — as a result of each international locations have an equal declare to it. 

“We’ve been making poitín on this island for over a thousand years; it’s not from the north or the south — it’s approach older than that,” he stated. “We’re speaking a few actually Irish spirit that’s stuffed with Irish historical past, and is made with Irish know-how and Irish substances, in Irish stills by Irish individuals.”

It’s an argument that clearly holds weight, as a result of the European Union has granted poitín a protected Geographical Indication (GI), akin to Champagne in France. Now, true poitín can solely be made on the island of Eire.

“It took just a few years to get individuals on board with premium poitín, however now a lot of the drinks business shares the identical imaginative and prescient, which is that now we have a very good providing to the world right here,” stated Mulligan. “Look, I’m a realist. I do know poitín is unlikely to overhaul Guinness because the primary Irish drink, however all I’m saying is whiskey had higher begin watching its again.”