Bewley’s Coffee Cocktail Club
After a detailed period of consultation, we worked with Bewley’s Coffee to establish a pop up at their flagship Grafton Street café…
They wanted to see if we could maximize their first floor area The James Joyce Room by running a public event there. With its intricate designs dating back almost 100 years and roaring fireplaces on either side, we knew there wouldn’t be a better space in Dublin to host a Christmas time soireé.
Bewley’s is globally renowned for its coffee but their in house pastries & desserts have been equally brilliant for close to a century. So we engaged with their kitchen and barista teams, to create cocktails that were paired with a trio of desserts and all mixed exclusively with Irish spirits and the Bewley’s Inca Single Origin coffee from Peru. In addition to designing the concept and the cocktails, we ran all the publicity and managed the bar for each night. Spread out over three Thursdays in December, each one sold out.
Coverage included excellent food & drink lifestyle as well as a live TV segment on Ireland AM. This was a dream project to work on especially as it’s such a legendary venue. Most importantly, it was brilliant to highlight how well coffee cocktails made with Irish spirits pair so nicely with desserts. We are now using this as a template to show how other Irish bars and restaurants can do the same, a crucial element in further establishing a stronger bond between our native food & drink sectors.
Dublin City Brewing Co.
The Dublin City Brewing Co is an 11,000 square foot property situated on Parnell Street, making it the second biggest brewery in Dublin’s city centre. It is set to open to the public later in 2022 with state of the art facilities. In 2021, we were contracted for a year to manage their publicity and build their brand in this crucial stage of their development.
Every member of the team there is extremely passionate about supporting other local food & drink producers and getting behind other Irish businesses. It’s a core part of their brand’s identity. This was the inspiration for us to create the Dublin City Brewing Tasting Club for them. It started as a monthly online event hosted on Zoom, where their head brewer Fergal Murray conducted a tasting of their beers alongside a local chef who pairs his beers with a food item. Launched in February each one quickly sold out, even after we increased ticket allocation by 50%. When restrictions eased, we were so happy to host the Dublin City Brewing Tasting Club in Restaurants and Gastropubs like Pitt Bros and The Seafood Cafe by Niall Sabongi. They proved to be as popular as the online versions!
Pairing Irish drinks with Irish foods is something that we’ve always felt strongly about and the beers from Dublin City Brewing Co are superb. They hold up so well to great food combinations. We firmly believe there is no future to Irish gastronomy without beer and food pairings.
Midleton Distillery Very Rare 2021 Vintage Edition
Such is its now legendary status, the annual vintage release of Midleton Very Rare has quietly become one of the most anticipated events in the global whiskey calendar.
This year’s bottling had an even higher degree of attraction as it was the first to be curated and overseen by the new Master Distiller, Kevin O’Gorman.
It was an honour for us to work on the publicity for this incredible Irish whiskey, our third consecutive year to do so. For the March 2021 issue of Food & Wine magazine with the Business Post, it was the cover story.
Redbreast 10 Year Old
To celebrate 30 years since the resurrection of the Redbreast brand, our old friends in Irish Distillers have bottled a limited edition 10 year-old Irish whiskey. This new expression comprises three distillates aged for between 10 and 15 years in both American oak ex-Bourbon barrels and oloroso Sherry-seasoned butts from Spain.
As master blender Billy Leighton says, “Redbreast 10-Year-Old offers a unique, rich flavour profile with notes of tropical and dried fruit, which gives way to a balance of richness from the inclusion of Sherry casks.”
It was a one off release and every bottle was sold through the Redbreast Birdhouse website.
Through our role as managers of the national publicity, we conducted an acutely targeted campaign focusing on the online Irish whiskey fan community. When the site went live for sales, there was a frenzy of activity and all 7,000 bottles sold out in just over 6 hours.
Bord Bia – Maximizing the opportunity
This was a 2 day workshop where we collaborated with the London based, A Drop of Irish. Together we created an intensive program that guided new Irish drinks brands around the difficult landscape of gaining access, foothold and advocacy in the UK & USA markets. We interviewed dozens of global leaders in new and old spirit brands, consultants, media, distributors, on trade and retail. Their findings and opinions were documented and shared with our participants who also got involved in bar show roleplays and participated in a panel discussion with special guests.
Midleton Distillery Very Rare Silent Edition – Chapter One
Midleton Very Rare Silent Distillery Collection is a collection of six releases. The first is a 45-year-old Irish single malt. There will be one release annually until the year 2025, ranging in age from 45 to 50 years old, all from the fabled Old Midleton Distillery (operating 1825-1975). The last release will coincide with Old Midleton Distillery’s 200th birthday.
A ‘silent’ distillery is one that has closed its doors and been lost to ages past, achieving almost mythical status. As rumours of this ‘unicorn’ whiskey swirl around the whiskey world, these precious bottlings have become highly sought after by whiskey enthusiasts. A traditional distillery, Old Midleton Distillery was famous throughout the world for Irish whiskey, but when it closed its doors for the last time in 1975, it became an iconic part of Irish distilling legend.
This release went on to become the most valuable Irish whiskey release of all time. Each bottle was values at €35,000 per bottle. At Great Irish Beverages, we were extremely proud to have managed the publicity for this remarkable Irish whiskey.
Redbreast 27 Year Old & Redbreast Dream Cask Ruby Port Edition
The category leader in Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey, Redbreast 12 Year Old is now winning world wide competitions across all styles. Their latest permanent family member is their 27 Year Old and it has been exceedingly well received. It was released in March this year and was soon followed by their annual Dream Cask release. That particular expression has become the hottest event in the Irish whiskey calendar every year. We took care of all media and publicity in Ireland for these two ground breaking, highly coveted whiskeys.
Jameson Hosts
The good folk in the Jameson International Team have been working with us for 9 years now on a wide array of ongoing projects, activations and liquid innovations.
When the global lockdowns were issued, they quickly had to amend some of their biggest works. The end result for one, was Jameson Hosts – a brand new platform to assist and inspire the global bartender community during these difficult times.
We contributed by sharing some of our home-bar shot videos but it has also become the space where you can see some of our Grow Your Own Cocktail films. These were done in Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai and the beautiful Ballymaloe! Check them out here.
Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey Week
Once the most popular style of whiskey in the world and then nearly lost to the ravages of war and prohibition, single pot still Irish whiskey is now back in the limelight. It’s even winning global whiskey competitions!
Defined as a whiskey made in the one Irish distillery with a mix of malted and unmalted barley, in a copper pot still. It is unique to Ireland, represents how Irish whiskey was first made and features some of the best whiskies to be ever made here. We here at Great Irish Beverages felt it was time to honour this incredibly spicy, rich and robust liquid gold and its incredible legacy. So we teamed up with our favourite single pot still brands and rolled out a very special festival, Irish Single Pot Still Whiskey Week.
It was on from November 9th – 16th 2019 and it was all about celebrating all the fantastic ways to enjoy single pot still Irish whiskies. Whether served alongside a beer, paired with a food dish, mixed into a cocktail, or of course neat!
Through our festival whiskey partners, any venue across Ireland was allowed to participate. Ninety venues got on board in 14 different counties. By doing so, their venue got its own page on our site and was actively promoted by our team for being part of a brand new, nationwide initiative. And when the festival started, the public could vote for their favourite venue by using the hashtag #PotStillHero on social media. The winning venue was Taylor’s Bar & Beer Garden in Galway. It received huge coverage including national newspapers, a slot on Virgin Media’s Ireland AM as well as interviews on Newstalk and Today FM.
Istil 38 Pot Still Irish Vodka
Work commenced for us on istil 38 Pot Still Irish Vodka in January 2022. We were initially tasked with helping to develop their flavoured range and cocktail strategy. Their classic vodka is distilled four times in a traditional Irish pot still which gives it a smooth character with a well rounded finish. The same spirit is then used for their istil 38 Pink Berries Vodka but has Irish berries added to it for a fruity, naturally sweet flavour. While their istil 38 Vanilla Vodka is richly infused with Madagascan vanilla and was literally tailor made to create the best Espresso Martinis and Porn Star Martinis. Cocktails have always been central to our work so this has been a fantastic project for us to bring to reality.
In April 2022, we managed the national media for the press launch where it was exceptionally well received landing amazing coverage.
Since then, the brand has gone from strength to strength hitting great sales in leading cocktail bars and off licences. The brand’s Creative Director and co-owner, Pippa Ormond O’Connor has been hugely instrumental in all their achievements in such a short period of time.