Have you ever had a sip of poitín? Don’t worry – Anna Hart says you’ll find this Irish spirit in a bar near you soon…

If you pride yourself on knowing your way around a cocktail menu, we have a new word for your vocab: poitín. Pronounced ‘potcheen’, and meaning ‘little pot’, this Irish moonshine is the latest drink to have a fashionable makeover. A handful of small-batch, craft distilleries such as Cooley, Knockeen Hills and San Francisco outfit 1512 are hoping to put this forgotten Irish spirit back on cocktail menus from Cork to California.

Dave Mulligan is co-owner of Shebeen, an Irish speakeasy in Kentish Town, who currently stock bottles by all eight of the world’s (legal) poitín distillers, ranging from 40% to 90% alcohol by volume (abv). This month, he launches the first batch of Ban Poitin, which he describes as ‘more soft and subtle than most, not far off vermouth in flavour, and with a bit of white wine on the nose.’ It is, he says, ‘a robust spirit, perfect in sours and old fashioneds, and mixes well with rum.’