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Chapter 1: What is the history of Irish Poitín?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk.
With Aviva Insurance.
You're very welcome back to the programme. Thank you, Bernie. You're listening to the Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk. We are in the Ballykill Cabin Farm in Brewery in County Leash this morning for the Newstalk Summer Tour with thanks to ESB, Ireland's largest EV charging network. We've been joined by lots of lovely people. Give us a cheer to take us into the 11 o'clock hour.
lovely leash people who are with us and we have lots to come two of our audience have been off learning how to play the baron they had about an hour and a half to learn how to play the byron with that tiger they're going to be back with us before 12 o'clock we're going to see how they got on we will have afternoon tea with chef shane smith
Shane has little treats for everybody to taste a little bit later on, so we're looking forward to that. And we're going to be meeting a leash rugby legend. The number, if you'd like to get in touch, 087-1400-106. That's the number for WhatsApp, or you can email claireburn at newstalk.com. I am surrounded by drink. And it's really strong drink.
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Chapter 2: How has Poitín evolved from underground to mainstream?
It's Irish Pudgine, which, you know, we all have heard about Pudgine, haven't we, over the years growing up? And it's gone from being made in secret in the shed to being sold now in exclusive cocktail bars. I'm joined by brand manager at Mikkel Distillery in County Galway, Micheal O'Flaherty. You're very welcome. Micheal, thanks for being with us.
And from Bar 1661, the Flohuloch cocktail maker, Steffi Fletcher. Steffi, you're very welcome. Thank you so much. You believe in the free pour, I take it, do you? Absolutely. Yeah, I was watching you putting the spirits in particular into the cocktail shaker, and some of our audience, their mouths were open. Because they're thirsty.
All of the non-drivers are going to have a little treat, I think. Now, tell me a little bit, Michal, about Puccine, because I said to you it had that underground reputation, which is changing a lot.
Yeah, so Pudging has this wonderful thing where it's in every, every single Irish person in the country knows about Pudging and they think that they know what it is and they think they've had it or they'll talk about it or they'll talk about it as if they do.
Chapter 3: What are the traditional ingredients used in Poitín?
And so few people actually know what it's about. We have this real proud distilling tradition in Ireland that goes all the way back to 600 AD, according to the history books. And this spirit would have known, been known as Fwishke. And Fwishke comes from the Irish, ishkabaha, water of life. And Fwish got really, really, really popular around Ireland.
Then in 1661, the great bar that Steffi works at is named after. The British Crown decided they do best, put a tax on things. And we, the Irish, said what we do best, find a way to avoid paying that tax. And we had the birth of two distilling traditions in Ireland. We had those who paid the tax to the Crown, who became known as Parliament whisky makers. Fwishke went anglicising to whisky.
And they had the ability then to get these big loans, these grants, and turn cottage industries into these mega industries that we know today. You know, Jemison, Paddy, Powers, Bushmills, all these big, big distilleries. Then there was the other side, those who decided, you know what, we're not going to pay this tax, and we're going to find another way to distill.
And this became known as puttine. And puttine and lew, so it's a list of nature. In Irish, it means put the pot in small. So small seals you can hide from yourself, the wife, the kids, the church, the guards, the constable, from whoever prying eyes were coming from. So this tradition, I suppose, has a bit of a bad reputation here in Ireland.
Two things they associate with, 90% alcohol and potatoes.
Was it brewed from potatoes?
Not traditionally, no. So potatoes, you can make pudding from potatoes. It's a really tough crop to use. And potatoes arrived in the 1600s. Family did a famously good job of wiping them out. So they never became part of the selling tradition here in Ireland. And also, people would eat potatoes. Whereas the traditional grains would be barley, wheat, oats, and rye.
And that's what we would predominantly use was barley.
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Chapter 4: How is Poitín distilled differently from other spirits?
If we ask our head distiller, Jimmy Mikkel, his one canon rule is like malt is king. So it's traditionally made with barley, oats, wheat, or rye.
So what is the difference between it then and other spirits, if that's the case?
So it's the way that it's distilled. So when you're distilling many spirits, particularly spirits that have been aged, they're going to be put into barrels. So what you do is you have three stages of distillation in your heads, which will drive you blind, drunk. It's methylated spirits. It's almost blue in colour. So it's like seeing the yellow frog in the rainforest. You do not touch it.
You stay away from it. It will make you sick, if not worse. Then the job of the distiller is to pick the heart's cut. This is the piece of the spirit that you're going to keep. Jimmy in our distillery, he does everything by nose, which makes it quite unique. You know, he'll be smelling the spirit the whole time. And you know, if it smells good, it'll taste good.
And then the tails is the kind of the back end of the spirit that doesn't have much flavor in it. So what you do is you keep the heads and the tails, you keep re-distilling them, but the hearts cuts what you keep. In the likes of whiskey, which would be the other spirit we'd make here in Ireland, you take really big hearts cuts, because the wood will round out the roughness on the spirit.
Whereas with poutine, you don't have that luxury.
So, Steffi, you're using Pochine to make cocktails, this new iteration of Pochine. So what have you made today?
So that's exactly what we do in Bar 1661, because Pochine has this incredible history, but it also has a lot of preconceptions that surround it. I think we may all have a spirit that we may have encountered in our younger years that shouldn't have taken... Tequila. Yeah, exactly. Don't ever, I can't even smell it, yeah. There's people who, they don't drink tequila, but they'll drink a margarita.
So that's our whole, that's our whole spiel is we're putting potcine into cocktails to make it palatable and make it kind of for the masses and for the people again. So today we've got three really fun cocktails for you. We've got two Mikkel cocktails. One of them is an Irish margarita or an Irish daisy, as it were, with some Irish honey, some lime, some potcine.
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Chapter 5: What cocktails can be made using Poitín?
Raise your hand. Listen, give that to that man down there. Have we a microphone? Where's David? Rory, thanks so much. I know, I know. We won't make you talk after drinking the poutine.
so what is in this now what's going to happen that is just some potching a little bit of lime and then some grapefruit soda as well and you don't need to be too scared because none of the potchings we have here today are going to make you go blind or anything what do you think is it nice
That's actually lovely. Refreshing. It's really, really nice.
Yeah.
It looks really nice.
Keep it. No, drink it. Yeah, why not?
Go for it. One of the great drinks, or my favourite drink, with Pudging is Pudging and Lilt. Now, Lilt's RIP, so this is like a fancier version of Lilt.
uh it's uh yeah it's returning to fanta grapefruit and pineapple i think it is but there's a wonderful irish brand called poachers to do a lovely grapefruit soda so that's what you mix it with so uh so that's what that is if you're looking for what it tastes like put you in a grapefruit soda it's it's a great mix
And what's this one that looks exactly like an Irish coffee?
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Chapter 6: What are the misconceptions surrounding Poitín?
So it's not hot. And then we make it with Pochine instead of Irish whiskey. Who's going to try it? Have we an audience member?
Excellent. Excellent. Down the back. There we go. David, will you drop that Irish or Belfast coffee made with Pudging? Belfast coffee, yeah. Back to that lady right down there at the back. See that one there? Yeah. There you go. Enjoy. Cold press. Micheál, what have you got here in the different glasses?
I've got three different versions of our Mikkel Pudging. Yeah. It's our classic. Our heritage was our peated. And then our Cullamara cream liqueur.
So do they increase in strength?
No, no, no. It's all around the 40% mark. So there is a myth around pudging that is 90% alcohol, which couldn't be further from the truth.
It scares people a bit, doesn't it?
It does, yeah. So you never get above 60% alcohol in a home still. So if you drink pudging that you think is 90% alcohol, it's probably just really, really bad pudging. People, you know, they're trying to get bigger cuts out of it, all that kind of stuff. So, you know, we make bocce and it comes out about 70. We bring it down to 44, 46%.
So like any other spirit?
Like any other spirit, like a gin, like a vodka, like a tequila or mezcal.
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Chapter 7: How do the guests recommend enjoying Poitín?
Lovely. Amazing.
It looks so nice. I'm very envious of you trying your two cocktails down there. So take us through then, Michal, what you were telling us there.
So this is our classic poutine. So this is our classic poutine. Hand over the bottle here so I can show people.
Can I have a sniff of that as you're telling us?
Our founder, Borek, is a sixth-generation poutine maker. So we have a lot of family. It's very hot in here today. It's not the day to drink straight spirits. And you did say you don't like tequila. And this drink's quite like an Irish take on a tequila. One of the first things you always get asked, I thought poutine was illegal. No, it's been legal since 1997.
And the second is, how do you drink it? Yeah, how do you drink this? I like Pudgy neat. I like it with grapefruit soda. The Belfast coffee has become the signature drink. Dave at 6061 is, you know, it's the flagship cocktail for Pudgy around the world at this stage. But Michel Pudgy drinks quite like a tequila.
We use a little flower in it called bog bean, which gives you earthy, grassy notes, similar to what agave gives to tequila. So this is 100% malt barley, similar to what a whiskey would be, but with the addition of that bog bean, and then we cut it by nose, so it's much lighter.
And what is that last drink you have there that looks green?
So this is our Cunamara cream liqueur.
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Chapter 8: What are the future trends for Poitín in the beverage industry?
Yes.
So, yeah, well... It's a different version. So we make this with poutine as its base, and we sweeten it with honey instead of sugar. So there was an old drink in Ireland called skaltine prior to Bailey's. When you're coming in off the fields, if you're coming in from the farm festival, it's wet and windy outside. They take out a saucepan. They put in some milk.
They put in some cream, sweetened with honey, instant coffee, cocoa powder. And you spike a little bit of poutine, and you serve it warm. And during COVID there, when we had a lot of time to ourselves, we made it hot in the distillery, then we got a shelf-stable version of it and put it in a bottle. And that's where you are with that. Yeah, and it's based on the granny's recipe.
And what's the last one you have there?
So this is a Puccine Margherita. Okay.
Did you make that?
Yeah, so it's probably a little stronger than the standard one.
It's actually perfectly balanced. Anyone for a Puccine Margherita?
Anyone? There we go, yes. Good man, I'm delighted.
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