Irish whiskey has it origin in the same monastic tradition as Scotch whisky.
Irish whiskey is said to be one of the earliest drinks distilled in Europe; twelfth-century Irish monks brought the technique of distilling perfume from the Middle East – later modified to produce the liberated spirit.
In Arabia, the technique had been used to distill perfume from flowers, but the monks evidently saw a very different use for it. As the legend maintains, they soon developed am method of distilling whiskey from barley.
The Old Bushmills Distillery claims to be the oldest surviving licensed distillery in the world and it was established in 1608. By the time of Bushmills’ official opening, whiskey was already exceedingly popular among the common people of Ireland.
Then, in 1661, the British sat up and took notice of all the buying and selling back and forth, forthwith imposing a tax on all whiskey.
The new whiskey tax dramatically slowed the legal whiskey trade. Still, Irish whiskey sailed off to Europe, carried by bootleggers and smugglers sailing under the British tax radar.
History of Irish whiskey
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