Entrepreneurs in high spirits over brand’s potential

Giving a gift of poitín — or adding a dash of it to the plum pudding — has become much more possible this Christmas following the launch of new drinks company, Coomara.

In October the company went into 70 branches of Tesco with three new products: original poitín, wild berry-flavoured poitin and orchard fruits-flavoured poitín. Having launched the first poitín to be sold in supermarkets in Ireland, Coomara is targeting global exports in 2014.

Brand developer Gary Gartland and food consultant Bronagh Conlon set up the company because they believed that the possibilities of poitín, an ancient and once illegal drink, weren’t being fully realised. “It’s been around for hundreds of years since it was developed by the monks — it has history and mythology,” says Mr Gartland