Roe & Co European Brand Ambassador and co-creator, Peter O’Connor, has been very connected within the bartender scene over the years. When he and the team launched the Roe & Co brand, the bartenders got behind it straight away, especially as Roe & Co had five Dublin bartenders involved in the creation of it, as detailed in part one.

“If you have a liquid that works well, why wouldn’t you use it?”

O’Connor told me that they “did not create serves that will work well, we had bartenders creating the serves as that gives the whole thing more credibility and more usefulness for the trade. Everything we do involves the bartenders as it is a great liquid to make cocktails with, all the feedback tells them that, and it is now even the house pour in fifteen of the best cocktail bars in Dublin”.

The distillery design even has bartender influences within it

Peter went on to say that “we are even using bartenders in the design of the bar in the distillery to make it work for them as well as for us. Asking what they want, what they need from the brand, work with them on new brands to create their own Roe & Co blends in the distillery for bars including Liquor Rooms”.

What is quite interesting here, and fascinating really when you think about how many whisky brands are trying to retrospectively connect with bartenders is how Roe & Co really wants to include bartenders in every part of the brand going forward. This includes another part of the distillery, away from production, where Roe & Co will be using the land around the new distillery for allotments so that bartenders from bars across Dublin can grow and manage their own herbs, fruit etc. to use as garnishes and inputs into their creative work, which also works as a sustainability tool and message too.

So where does the Roe & Co. brand fit within the world of whiskey?

In Peter’s words; “The brand’s place in the world of whiskey is as an Irish whiskey enjoyed neat, but also brilliant in a cocktail so it has the flexibility and enjoyability through depth and all bodied flavour”.

O’Connor went on to say that “the Roe & Co brand will be launched in certain parts of the US in the next year, but when we have our own liquid we can really have fun with it and create something special through different style of casks including champagne and rum casks, different styles of wood too, aged whiskies to sit alongside brands like Teeling”.

Irish whiskey is on a roll and the brands like Jameson and Teeling will get bigger and bigger so with Diageo’s backing they will grow both Roe & Co and the Irish whiskey category, and I for one cannot wait to see what the future holds for the brand and product.

Part one of this series can be viewed here

Part two of this series can be viewed here

My YouTube review of Roe & Co can be viewed here