Q&A with Jack Teeling, Teeling Whiskey

Hi Jack! So, let's talk poitín! How's business?

Well I suppose we should just get things straight. We are really a whiskey distiller who also makes a poitín and business is good as we have just commissioned our new Dublin Distillery over the last few weeks. Our poitín is new make whiskey spirit that has not been matured so for me, whiskey and poitín distillation are intimately interwoven.

Everyone who drinks poitín has a poitín story. One that involves accidental consumption of some sort. What's yours? How were you introduced to poitín?

I have been surrounded by many versions of poitín over the years and have interacted with it from a young age, as most Irish people have, but I am lucky enough not to have over indulged by mistake. Many people have done just that due to the way the illicit kind would normally have been kept, in an ex-soft drink bottle under the sink instantly springs to mind. In Ireland it tends to come out on special occasions such as stags, weddings, funerals and general family get togethers, so at some stage everyone has been exposed to it in some way.

What do you love most about poitín? What makes it such a special spirit for you?

Before there was whiskey there was poitín. It is amazing how ingrained it was and is in Irish culture. Our aim with our poitín was to present this in a more modern way and drag it out of the shadows, giving people something they could try in confidence and that still retained the taste and provenance of the illicit kind.

For people who are yet to try poitín, what would you say to get them involved?

Come at it with an open mind. Some of the perceptions of poitín come from its illicit past. Modern poitín is a clean spirit which can be appreciated in different ways, in particular in well-crafted cocktails.

Give us a snap shot of a day in the life of a poitín distiller:

Busy! My role requires plenty of travel to our export customers but it also requires plenty of head space to deal with all the aspects of the new distillery and visitor centre build out. Even when I go home things are a bit mad as I have three daughters under the age of 5!

Talk us through your choice of mash? Why use malted barley and not potatoes or Irish whey?

Again this stems back to the rich history of poitín distillation but also who we really are, which is a whiskey distiller. The crop of choice for making poitín was always barley but obvious this was expensive and hard to come by, in particular in the hard times Ireland found itself in, so poitín was made from whatever was available; fruit, potatoes or a combination of whatever they could get their hands on. As we are a whiskey distiller the choice to use malted barley was a fairly straight forward one for us.

How did you come up with your final flavour profile and what were you trying to achieve? How much trial and error did you go through?

To get to our current poitín, which has been awarded the Best Irish Poitín two years running at the Irish Whiskey Awards, required quite a bit of toying around with different mashbills to ensure we got the most flavoursome and drinkable poitín we could create. As such, even though it is 61.5%, it's still very smooth and you can taste all the underlying ingredients.

What's the biggest challenge that poitín currently faces?

Perceptions for people who know what it is and a serious lack of awareness in many countries on what poitín actually is. There is a large educational job to present or re-introduce people to modern day legal poitín.

Are you finding that people are reluctant to try it due to it's notorious history?

We find there is always a fascination and interest to try it but people seem to be more reluctant to drink it on a regular basis. People need to find a way to be able to enjoy it on a regular basis, and poitín needs to find its place in a cluttered world of many different premium spirits. I believe with the growing interest in well-crafted cocktails, poitín, due to its higher proof and unique taste profile, can carve out a niche. However we as an industry need to get the story and message of what poitín really is out to the right people.

Do you think its history will be hard to shake off?

Its history is what makes poitín interesting and while we don’t want to shake it off, we do want to move it on and be confident to present poitín in a modern way to a new generation of potential drinkers.

What's the funniest and most ridiculous urban myth you've heard about poitín?

The most common and frustrating one is that drinking poitín makes you go blind, which has stemmed from propaganda by the government when it was illegal. One that I recently heard from a rural illicit distiller, that I like, is that a well-crafted poitín can in fact act as an aphrodisiac! I wasn't sure if he meant by drinking it or rubbing it on certain parts of the body!

Who or what inspires you in your work and keeps your passion alive?

The fact we have the ability to be respectful to the past of poitín and whiskey distillation but also to be at the forefront of forging a new future for the category, that fuels my passion. Myself and my brother Stephen are just the latest generations of Teeling involved in the industry, so we are proud to be able to carry on the family tradition but also be confident enough to do this in a more modern way at the same time.

If you weren't distilling poitín(and whiskey)what would you be doing instead?

Good questions. It's hard to know as I have been involved in the industry now for coming on 15 years. My initial education and training was in finance, so I could still be trapped in the world of financial services if I hadn’t found the religion of the spirits industry!

How would you drink poitín? What's your perfect serve?

I appreciate and can enjoy it neat but again in the hands of the rights craft man or woman, poitín can really be used to create some very interesting and unique cocktails, which I really enjoy.

What does 2015 have in store for your poitín?

We are looking at bringing out some new expressions of our poitín now that our new Dublin distillery is up and running. So watch out for expressions of the 'Spirit of Dublin' poitín coming out over the next few months.

Describe Teeling Poitín in three words:

Surprisingly Smooth & Flavoursome

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