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

“I used to be drunk from the ft up,” mentioned 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.”

Communicate 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 allure from its heat, picket nooks. 

“Poitín was legalized right here in Northern Eire in 2015, but it surely took a couple of years to realize consciousness and momentum,” Oates defined as we sat by the pub’s crackling fireplace. “Finally, we realized it wanted a superb supply technique. Tequila took off due to the margarita, so we needed to discover poitín’s excellent 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 a neighborhood producer, Bán Poitín, and began serving the Belfast Espresso in March 2024,“ Oates mentioned. “That was our lightbulb second. Abruptly, folks 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 really went away, being distilled in secret throughout Eire and often shared at large household occasions in unmarked bottles. Because of this, high quality, style, and energy all different wildly from fiery and full-bodied to blow-your-head-off dangerous.

Mercifully, legalization means stricter controls over the as soon as illicit firewater, with a rising band {of professional} distilleries on either side of the Irish border — together with Echlinville, Killowen, and Mad March Hare — now producing fashionable, 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 the 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 identify interprets to “little pot” in Gaelic — a reference to the tiny copper stills wherein it is historically made.   

As a premium white spirit, certainly one of authorized poitín’s nice strengths is its versatility — a side that bartenders and mixologists at the moment are having enjoyable with throughout Belfast. Following The Garrick’s success, different in style 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 chic 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 consuming 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,” mentioned Mulligan. “Similar 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 yr of the poitín ban. Down within the Republic of Eire, poitín was decriminalized in 1997, which, Mulligan mentioned, laid the groundwork for the newer legalization in Northern Eire — as a result of each nations 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 means older than that,” he mentioned. “We’re speaking a couple of really Irish spirit that’s filled with Irish historical past, and is made with Irish know-how and Irish elements, in Irish stills by Irish folks.”

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 a couple of years to get folks on board with premium poitín, however now a lot of the drinks trade shares the identical imaginative and prescient, which is that we now have a very good providing to the world right here,” mentioned 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.”