Irish Mist Liqueur

Irish Mist Liqueur is a brown whiskey liqueur produced in Ireland. It is made from aged Irish whiskey, clover honey, heather, aromatic herbs and other spirits, blended to an ancient recipe claimed to be 1000 years old. The sweet tasting liqueur has been increasingly used in cocktails over the years and features as a key ingredient in the Black Nail cocktail and the Irish Canadian. To describe the taste, possibly the closest comparison would be Drambuie.

Irish Mist Liqueur has gone through a few changes in the last few years, with the alcohol content dropping from 40% to 30% and the design of the bottle changing from a  decanter style bottle to a more traditional whiskey type bottle, the objective arguably being to attract a younger, trendier crowd who were starting to get into whiskey. The brand was very deliberate to put Contains Irish Whiskey in gold lettering on the label to try and tap into our current new Whiskey Golden Age. The liqueur is often favoured by people who don’t really like the taste of whiskey- as it is much sweeter and easier to drinks.

Irish Mist Liqueur was actually the first liqueur to be produced in Ireland, when commercial production kicked off in Tullamore in 1947. The product actually stemmed from the Irish Whiskey which was produced in Tullamore – dating back to 1829. Desmond Tullmore, who was part of the family who owned the whiskey distillery  decided to create a new product linked with the whiskey and hence Irish Mist Liqueur was created. The story goes that the liqueur was based on an ancient beverage called heather wine. In September 2010 the Williams family sold Irish Mist to the Campari Group.