Belfast Coffee – cold-brewed poitín – makes stop in Boston to many sippers’ delight at The Dubliner...Courtesy of Bar 1661, Green Street, Dublin, Ireland
On Tuesday night, March 10, and that night only, Bar 1661 added the true taste of Dublin to The Dubliner by bringing its famous Belfast Coffee, a cold-brewed, poitín version of the classic, from Ireland’s east coast to Boston’s Center Plaza.

Bar 1661 is an award-winning cocktail bar in Dublin known for reviving Irish poitín, and over the last few weeks, its owner, Dave Mulligan, has been transporting his Irish spirits all over the world, so a stop in Boston right before St. Patrick’s Day seemed a natural choice. 

By 5:30 p.m., The Dubliner was packed, and its back bar top was full of shots of Irish gin, whisky, and, of course, poitín, which can have an alcohol volume ranging from 40 to 90 percent. Mulligan described the traditional high-proof Irish distilled spirit as a “full-flavor white spirit,” adding that “It's got similar agave kind of notes, so maybe not tequila but more like mezcal and raicilla. If you're a fan of drinking those big, full-flavored white spirits, you’re going to love it.” 

Your reporter is not going to pretend: When I took a sip of the Mad Marche Hare Irish Poitín, shivers ran down my spine. The word poitín translates to “little pot” (referring to the vessel in which the spirit was historically made), but the batches of malted barley, potatoes, or sugar beets have a larger-than-life taste. 

“We made it with what we grew on our land, and if we didn’t grow the ingredients, we swapped with a neighbor,” said Mulligan. “It was used as currency. It's as Irish as can be. You can’t talk about Irish spirits without talking about Irish Poitín.”
Like many others, your reporter prefers her poitín mixed in a chilled glass with cold brew and demerara, and topped with nutmeg and a thick layer of cream, making it absolutely magical. 

“We are very lucky to have the Irish Coffee as the national cocktail, but the Belfast Coffee is a cold version,” Mulligan said. “We swap the whiskey for poitín, and we swap the hot coffee for cold brew, stir it with sugar over ice, and layer a nice big thick cream over top.” 

Somehow, the concoction takes the clear, potent spirit with strong, grainy flavors and turns it into a sweet dessert-like treat. “It took me five years to figure out how to make a cold Irish coffee, thanks very much, but it was a eureka! moment,” said a laughing Mulligan. 

But in the grand scheme of things, five years doesn’t seem all that long considering that poitín was illegal in Ireland for over three centuries. 

“1661 is named after the year poitín was banned in Ireland. We’ve been making it for 500, 600 years, maybe 1,000 years, we don’t know, but it was illegal for 336 years,” Mulligan said. “It was only legalized in ‘97, and we opened 1661 in 2019 to shine a spotlight on it, celebrate our native spirit, and put it in a new guise that shows it in a contemporary way.” 

He added, “336 years is a long time for anything to be illegal, and for any people who grew up in Ireland, it was still everywhere. For it to survive that, it was way more than just a spirit; it’s about culture and heritage.”

While his bar is famous for its Belfast Coffee, it's not all the has to offer. The March 10 menu also included 1661’s take on a whiskey sour with peach notes called the Sackville Sour; the Parliament Spirit made with Teeling Single Grain, toasted sesame, banana, manzanilla, and lemon; the Sliding Doors featuring notes of exotic fruit, winter trifle, and sherried oak; the gin and burnt yogurt based Woven Stove, and Mulligan's personal favorite, the Libertarian, which he compares to a sour cherry manhattan meeting an old fashioned. 

“The lads are doing really innovative Irish cocktails,” said The Dubliner’s bar manager, Brian McDonnell, “a different twist on the classics, while also inventing their own things altogether. What they do is kind of the same general thing that we try to do here, try to show the new age Irish.” 

Originally from Galway, McDonnell, who has been in Boston for more than three years, said that “there's the stereotypical thinking that we only eat meat and potatoes, or we only know dark beer and straight whiskey. It's important to show Americans, and any people visiting, what it's actually like to be Irish or be in bars and restaurants there.”

He added, “The cocktail scene, the food scene, the bar scene, everything in Ireland has elevated so highly in the last few years. You have bars like 1661 that are getting all the different accolades. It kind of really shows there's a lot more to Ireland than what people think.” 

Attendees that day learned about – and tasted – just what the Irish have to offer, as brand reps for spirits like Lost Irish Whiskey, Glendalough Distillery, and Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin shared their stories. As they spoke, bar goers filled their Irish food boards with samples of the spirits to sip.  

“Everything we do, we do it about championing the amazing booze we make on the island of Ireland,” said Mulligan. “I know you all think we know how to drink it, but we actually know how to make it as well. Not just Guinness, we actually have an amazing array of spirits.” 

While the night at The Dubliner was a huge success, it was just the start of the St. Patrick celebrations. “We’ll be pumping tunes for four or five days straight, plenty of beer, plenty of Guinness,” said McDonnell. “We have about 250 kegs out back now, ready to go. Hopefully, all goes as planned, and I am sure it will be a crazy few days for us.” 

As Dave Mulligan put it, “Boston does St. Patrick's Day better than Dublin does St. Patrick’s Day – big time. You guys go all out. I guess we are the start of the festivities.”