On The Dry for the Irish Heart Foundation

For the month of January Black Castle will be going 'On The Dry' in aid of the Irish Heart Foundation. 

We'll be giving 50% of our profits from cases of our soft drinks sold in January to the Irish Heart Foundation. So there'll be no reason for you not to get involved!

Plus... We'll be sharing lots of alcohol free cocktail recipes, things to do and of course our progress. 

Stay tuned for more updates!

Halloween Cocktail Inspiration: The Bride of Frankenstein

Halloween is just around the corner and here's what we'll be drinking this year: The Bride of Frankenstein cocktail made with our fruity Black Castle Berry Bramble Sting.

If you’re looking for something a little more sophisticated this year, you’re in luck. This potion is elegant and balanced—and spiked with just the right amount of hocus pocus.

What You'll Need:

1. 50ml Black Castle Berry Bramble Sting
2. 20ml Good quality Gin
3. Top up with Prosecco (Champagne or Cava will do nicely too)
4. Garnish with fresh Blackberries

Enjoy! Muaha hahaha!!!

Red Lemonade - Ireland's legendary soft drink

Ireland through the centuries has produced it's fair share of legendary drinks. We've all heard the folk stories about poitín, whiskey and Guinness but none of these come close to the school yard urban legends surrounding the most mythical of all Ireland's drinks - Red Lemonade.

To begin with, even the origins of red lemonade are shrouded in mystery. Several soft drink manufacturers claim to be the originators of our national soft drink (or 'minerals' as we like to call them in Ireland) but no one can seem to give an answer as to why lemonade became red in Ireland while remaining colourless in the rest of the world. What can be agreed upon is that this unique drink emerged at the end of the 19th century and became a staple of many of the mineral water factories that had sprung up in every large town in the country. It wasn't long before whiskey drinkers discovered that red lemonade worked perfectly as a mixer to their favourite spirit meaning that the children's weekend treat now became one of the pub's mandatory bottles.

Anyone who went to school in Ireland in the 90's will have heard the urban legend which explained that the reason you could only get red lemonade in Ireland was because the red colour additive used was carcinogenic and had been banned everywhere else. And to make matters worse, the EU dictators in Brussels were now going to ban our beloved red lemonade!  Thankfully, this all turned out not to be true and the Irish people's undying affection for the drink was untainted.

At Black Castle Drinks, unlike most other red lemonade producers, we don't add any artificial colouring or artificial sweeteners to our unique lemonade. Our Black Castle Spiced Red Lemonade is made with 100% natural colours and natural flavourings while being lightly sweetened with the finest cane sugar. But what really makes our Red Lemonade stand out are the warm spices we infuse into our recipe, giving it an added depth of flavour making it a perfect partner to Irish whiskey, or a sophisticated grown-up soft drink option. 

With such great natural flavour while still having that iconic appearance we all love and know, we think our Spiced Red Lemonade is already a legend in the making!

Selling out at the brilliant Taste of Wicklow!

Third time's a charm for another very successful Taste of Wicklow event in the Abbey Grounds in Wicklow Town. The sun pelted down as the grounds filled up with foodie lovers, families and people of all ages. All happy in the knowledge they were going to spend the day sitting on the grass, feasting on delicious food from over 35 stall holders and watching how the professionals chefs do their thing - with demonstrations from Neven Maguire to our own Paul Smith from Wicklow Town. 

We had an extremely successful day with long queues forming throughout the day... we couldn't believe it! Once again we roped in family members who rolled up their sleeves to help us, with a special mention to my little cousin Luke who is only 11 years old! Future Black Castle employee right there! With such heat our ice cold soft drinks went down a treat, so much so that we sold out an just under an hour before the event closed!  

We were also very lucky to meet Neven Maguire who made a real effort to speak to all the stall holders and stop for photos. What a gent! He was very encouraging of our new venture and later Tweeted us with some kind words!

We must also say thanks again to our amazing friend Aileen who helped throughout the day when things got a bit manic! For now all we can repay her with is our drinks (and maybe a few cocktails!) but we won't forget how helpful she's been! 

Looking forward to next year's Taste of Wicklow already and we'll have even more stock and more tricks up our sleeves by then! A big well done to Josh McKenna, Paul Smith and all the Taste of Wicklow committee and volunteers. Thanks all!