The Ancient Irish Spirit That’s Making a Comeback After 350 Years

“I was drunk from the feet up,” said Colm Oates, laughing. We were sitting in the corner of his Belfast pub, The Garrick, as he recalled his first taste of poitín. “I tried to stand, but my legs didn’t get the message.”

Speak to any Belfast native about poitín — an ancient, potent, and notoriously illegal Irish spirit — and you’ll hear tales of drinkers going blind, suffering memory loss, or waking up in unseemly places. But all that is about to change, because now — after more than 350 years — poitín is legal again. 

Every great story begins in a bar. And in Belfast, poitín’s renaissance started in earnest at The Garrick — one of the city’s oldest and most beloved pubs, radiating Victorian charm from its warm, wooden nooks. 

“Poitín was legalized here in Northern Ireland in 2015, but it took a few years to gain awareness and momentum,” Oates explained as we sat by the pub’s crackling fire. “Ultimately, we realized it needed a good delivery method. Tequila took off because of the margarita, so we had to find poitín’s perfect cocktail.”

The answer was the Belfast Coffee: a dangerously delicious blend of poitín, cold brew coffee, heavy cream, demerara sugar syrup, and nutmeg. Bearing more than a passing resemblance to a tiny pint of Guinness, the cocktail drinks somewhere between a cold Irish coffee and a creamy espresso martini. 

“We worked with a local producer, Bán Poitín, and started serving the Belfast Coffee in March 2024,“ Oates said. “That was our lightbulb moment. All of a sudden, people were queuing up at the bar to order it.” 

The initial wariness around poitín (pronounced “pot-sheen”) was understandable. Banned by the British government in 1661, Ireland’s unique twist on moonshine never truly went away, being distilled in secret all over Ireland and frequently shared at big family events in unmarked bottles. As a result, quality, taste, and strength all varied wildly from fiery and full-bodied to blow-your-head-off bad.

Mercifully, legalization means stricter controls over the once illicit firewater, with a growing band of professional distilleries on both sides of the Irish border — including Echlinville, Killowen, and Mad March Hare — now producing modern, blended poitín that drinks like high-end mezcal or tequila at an eminently more manageable 40-45 percent ABV. 

One of the oldest alcoholic spirits in the world, poitín dates back to the sixth century, when Irish monks started distilling it from malted barley, with apples and later sugar beets and potatoes added for flavor. Considered the precursor to Irish whiskey, its name translates to “little pot” in Gaelic — a reference to the tiny copper stills in which it's traditionally made.   

As a premium white spirit, one of legal poitín’s great strengths is its versatility — an aspect that bartenders and mixologists are now having fun with across Belfast. Following The Garrick’s success, other popular pubs like The Cloth Ear have also started serving the Belfast Coffee, while venues like Rattlebag and Whites Tavern are offering their own cheeky twists on the classics, from poitín sours to poitín spritzes. Meanwhile, one of the city’s slickest cocktail temples, The Merchant Cocktail Bar, has two original poitín drinks on its menu: Rounded, which is an elegant homage to the boulevardier, and Fiery, a long, spicy number that blends smoky Killowen poitín with ginger beer, lemon juice, and soda water for a delicious finish with distinct echoes of the Dark and Stormy. 

One of the world’s great drinking cities, Belfast and its charming, chaotic pub scene is a perfect breeding ground for poitín’s revival — something that Dave Mulligan, the owner of Bán Poitín, noted while perfecting the Belfast Coffee recipe. 

“Belfast is the only city in Ireland that will never be twee,” said Mulligan. “Just like poitín, it has a unique edge and character to it.” 

Mulligan owns his own cocktail venue, Bar 1661, in Dublin, which is named after the year of the poitín ban. Down in the Republic of Ireland, poitín was decriminalized in 1997, which, Mulligan said, laid the groundwork for the more recent legalization in Northern Ireland — because both countries have an equal claim 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 way older than that,” he said. “We’re talking about a truly Irish spirit that’s full of Irish history, and is made with Irish know-how and Irish ingredients, in Irish stills by Irish people.”

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

“It took a few years to get people on board with premium poitín, but now most of the drinks industry shares the same vision, which is that we have a really good offering to the world here,” said Mulligan. “Look, I’m a realist. I know poitín is unlikely to overtake Guinness as the number one Irish drink, but all I’m saying is whiskey had better start watching its back.”