Wild Atlantic Distillery is an Award Winning Whiskey, Gin and Vodka Distillery based in Co Tyrone and draws its inspiration from Ireland’s stunning coastline and the Wild Atlantic Way. The distillery is located on the outskirts of Aghyaran – close to the Sperrin Mountains – and only 15 miles from Donegal’s Wild Atlantic Way.
Distillery Tour & Tastings
Meet the people behind Ireland’s newest distillery in a fun and friendly environment just 15 miles from the Wild Atlantic Way.
Brian and Jim at Wild Atlantic Distillery are passionate about maintaining the long history of independent, traditional and craft distilleries in Ireland and particularly in Co. Tyrone where they are based.
Enjoy a complimentary drink on arrival while taking the opportunity to learn how we make our exciting Wild Atlantic Irish Gin and Wild Atlantic Irish Vodka and let us introduce you to the equipment that makes it all possible.
This year 2021, we are proud to announce that we will begin making Irish Whiskey once again in Co Tyrone after an absence of almost 200 years, the world’s most sought after whiskey. Wild Atlantic Distillery are proud to be part of the new wave of independent, traditional and craft distilleries blossoming in Ireland.
£45 Per Person (Includes a complimentary bottle of award winning Wild Atlantic Irish Gin or Vodka)
Minimum Group Size: 6
Maximum Group Size: 30
Wild Atlantic Distillery Cocktail Class
Spend an exciting afternoon or evening enjoying a unique cocktail class at Ireland’s newest distillery, Wild Atlantic Distillery. On arrival, you will be welcomed to the class with our famous Wild Atlantic Irish Gin Bramble.
Learn the secrets of cocktail mixology before finding out what inspired a classic cocktail and one of our own signature cocktails and getting behind the bar to make them both.
As part of the class you will also enjoy a delicious light lunch of local food including artisan breads, local cheeses, and charcuterie as you enjoy your own cocktail in stylish surroundings.
£95 Per Person
Minimum Group Size: 5
Maximum Group Size: 12
The Ultimate Gin School Experience
Craft your own spirit under the expert guidance of the master distillers at Wild Atlantic Distillery. Discover what makes Ireland’s newest gin experience so unique as you learn about the origins of the botanicals including kelp and dillisk, that are harvested from the wild Atlantic Ocean.
Be surprised by the unexpected as your hosts Brian and Jimtell you stories of innovative distillation methods that are rooted in tradition and discover how they have been inspired by the people and the landscape of this place to create something extraordinary.
Have your sense enlivened by the elements as you smell, taste, and touch a range of botanicals that will inspire your own spirit. Enjoy the views of the rolling countryside as you work with your individual copper still to produce your personalised bottle to take home. Enjoy a light lunch of local food including artisan breads, local cheeses, and charcuterie as you enjoy a gin and tonic in stylish surroundings.
Get hands on as you fill your bottle and personalise your creation by naming and labelling your spirit as you take home, a new gin made with your own hands that can’t be replicated anywhere else.
£95 Per Person
Minimum Group Size: 5
Maximum Group Size: 10
Contact Information:
jim@wildatlanticdistillery.ie or 028 9600 2525 / 00447517103239
Tom and Ollie, the producer of handcrafted Mediterranean foods in Belfast, has won business to supply their Oi Mezze range exclusively to Henderson Wholesale in Northern Ireland.
The successful artisan food producer is to supply eightlines to Henderson including Mezze Pitted Green Olives; Mezze Garlic Stuffed Olives; Mezze House Mix; Mezze Marinated Slow Roasted Cherry Tomatoes; Mezze Black Olive Tapenade; and Mezze Creamy Classic Hummus. All the eight lines are handcrafted from Mediterranean ingredients at the company’s processing plant near Dunmurry.
The latest listing for Tom and Ollie is part of an ongoing focus by Henderson Group on local artisan producers. The wholesaler’s support for local artisans is designed to help to accelerate the growth and experience of one of the most dynamic sectors of the food and drink industry over the past decade. Benefiting from the strength of this commitment by Northern Ireland’s largest and most successful food wholesale/retail operations are producers of meats including bacon, ice cream, breads, vegetables, snacks, sauces and free-range eggs.
The listing by Henderson for Tom and Ollie is the first substantial business from the leading local food wholesaler for the small company, a popular participant at food shows and farmers’ markets across Northern Ireland for many years and also one of the firstbusinesses to set up following the re-opening of the iconic St George’s Market in Belfast in 1997. It continues to be a key trader at the Victorian market.
Shay Mullan, one of the founding directors of Tom and Ollie in 2000, says: “We are delighted to have our Oi Mezze products listed exclusively with Henderson Wholesale and their SPAR, EUROSPAR, ViVO and VIVOXTRA stores in Northern Ireland because of the opportunity that this provides to reach such an impressive and widespread customer base here.
“We will be doing everything we can to maximise the tremendous business opportunity that this listing by Henderson presents,” he adds.
Neal Kelly, Fresh Food Director at Henderson Group,continues: “We are delighted to be able to offer the range of Oi Mezze products to our retailers and shoppers across in Northern Ireland.
“Providing market leading products is what sets our stores and supermarkets apart in a busy marketplace, and we will continue to set the example by sourcing from our fresh, local suppliers first and foremost,” adds Mr Kelly.
Tom and Ollie recently announced an investment of around £300,000 in opening a new production facility at Poleglass, expanding its online presence and retail division, and in creating nine new jobs.
The food manufacturer and retailer secured funding support through Whiterock Finance’s Growth Loan Fund II, which provides loans to Northern Ireland small and medium enterprises of between £100,000 and £1.5 million. Whiterock is part funded by business development agency Invest Northern Ireland.
Tom and Ollie specialises in handcrafted Mediterranean deli foods with over 65 lines made in-house including hummus, pesto, tapenades, harissa paste and a variety of marinated olives and peppers, all made without preservatives and offering an authentic Mediterranean taste.
The ambitious company also includes a wide range of produce from other local artisan enterprises in its marketing activities across Northern Ireland. In addition to participation in markets here, Tom and Ollie takes part in several food events every week in Dublin and other centres in the Republic of Ireland.
The funding from Whiterock enabled the company to develop its website and add an online delivery service to its offering, with over 300 products now available for next day delivery across Ireland.
Tom and Ollie sources Mediterranean deli foods such as an extensive range of olives from carefully selected growers and suppliers across Europe, Turkey and North Africa.
The business with the respected food wholesaler is for a wide range of retail products created and packaged from much of the fresh produce the company features on its market stalls, making the company an excellent example of a local enterprise which has diversified successfully from a market trader into a developer and successful marketer of retail packs.
The artisan business has a full retail range of Mediterranean foods which is also available across the Island in a number of local shops, farm shops and specialist retailers.
Henderson Wholesale is part of the Henderson Group, alocal family owned business consisting of four companies under the Henderson name – Henderson Wholesale, Henderson Retail, Henderson Group Property and Henderson Foodservice.
Henderson began in the retail grocery business back in 1897 selling butter, cheese, and eggs at premises in the Old Lodge Road in Belfast.
The wholesale supplies over 400 SPAR, EUROSPAR, VIVO, VIVOXTRA & VIVO Essentials stores across Northern Ireland. Henderson Retail owns and operates over 75 successful SPAR & EUROSPAR stores here.
The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has given the hospitality sector real encouragement by reducing VAT to five percent until January 2021. A reduction in VAT is something that we have wanted to see for years now, particularly since hospitality and tourism in the Republic of Ireland pay significantly lower rates of VAT. Taste of Ulster members have welcomed the new package of lower VAT which it is hoped will encouragediners to return, safely, to restaurants and to take short breaks at home. Our restaurants and hotels certainly need and deserve this long-awaited support.
What this important package promises is a cut of VAT on food, accommodation and attractions from 20 percent to just five percent, for 6 months. This is a significant reduction and Taste of Ulster has actively supported Hospitality Ulster in pressing the Treasury for a VAT cut to enable Northern Ireland to compete with the Republic of Ireland.
Tourism, of course, has been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and this year I would urge people to holiday at home.
There is also a new ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme for the month of August. This entitles diners to a 50 percent discount of up to £10 per head on their meal between Monday and Wednesday. I hope that people here will grasp the opportunity and in greater numbers enjoy the creative, delicious dishes from talented chefs in our network of excellent restaurants. They need our support now more than ever now.
Many have also invested heavily to meet social distancing requirements so we can dine safely. I’ve loved being able to eat out again with friends. It’s something I’ve missed enormously over the past three months.
These schemes offer unprecedented support for a key sector, over 80 percent of which was forced to cease trading in March as a result of Covid-19, resulting in the closure of several businesses and over two million workers in the sector on furlough.
I urge readers to respond positively and thereby help re-inspire a sector which employs thousands of people here and ensure as many companies in the sector are in a position to benefit when confidence and tourism eventually return.
We have a globally rated hospitality sector. As has been shown from regular research, holiday decisions are influenced strongly by the reputation of a potential destination for excellent food and drink. And around a third of a tourist’s holiday budget has typically been spent on food and drink.
The chancellor’s package will also benefit our food and drink suppliers to the hospitality sector. Many have been badly hit during the lockdown and have adapted imaginatively to the challenges that resulted. Food NI fervently hopes these measures will lead to a significant boost in demand for manufacturers here who supply into hospitality and thereby safeguard businesses and protect employment. They will also hope to see a recovery in hospitality.
Much of course will depend on consumers recovering confidence and being willing to eat out again and return to our wonderful visitor attractions. I for one think if we are vigilant and follow sensible precautions as advised by the Good to Go scheme that we can do good by supporting our local restaurant sector.
2021 Winners announced today by the Peas Please Initiative
Morrisons, Strong Roots and TastEd latest pledgers to join initiative
A third (29%) of children aged 5-10 years old eat less than one portion of veg a day
77% of adults eat less veg than the amount recommended in the Eatwell Guide
In a specially shot ceremony from River Cottage the writer and chef Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall today announced the winners of the 2021 Peas Please Prizes; the highlight of the year for the the Peas Please initiative which was established to drive up vegetable consumption across the UK. Peas Please is a partnership with The Food Foundation, Food Sense Wales, Nourish Scotland, Belfast Food Network and Food NI. Since the project launched 4 years ago it has delivered 162 million additional portions of vegetables into our food system working across all 4 nations.
Now in its fourth year the initiative has over 100 pledgers from across food production, retail and the Out of Home sectors who have all made pledges to promote and encourage people to eat more veg across the UK.
The Prizes are to recognise the businesses that have gone above and beyond and are leading the way in terms of transforming their businesses to drive up vegetable consumption.
The recently released Veg Facts Report 2021 continues to show that both adults and children are not consuming enough veg to meet the Government’s EAT WELL GUIDE recommendations. This is likely to have a long term impact on our health with diets that are low in vegetables and legumes being associated with just under 18,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. It therefore remains crucial that organisations working within the UK’s food system continue to support and deliver their Peas Please commitments to serve and sell more veg.
New Pledgers have also been announced today
Morrisons and Aldi UK have joined other major UK retailers in making significant new pledges this year. Morrisons becomes the latest UK supermarket to join the Peas Please scheme, making a pledge for more veg that will see them commit to supporting more advertising and promotion of veg both in-store and online, and working to increase the amount of veg in their new and reformulated own-brand products.
Aldi UK have also become the first UK-wide retailer to set a SMART sales-based target for a % increase in veg portions sold across their own-brand products. A significant step forward for supporting the Peas Please mission of boosting veg consumption across the UK.
Strong Roots are a plant based frozen food company providing convenient and healthy meals for home cooking. They’ve pledged to continue their mission to Make Veg Poverty History through a number of initiatives, including affecting change at a grass roots level to increase access to veg. They have also committed to driving increased consumption of veg based meals.
TasteEd is a charity working to change the way that food education is taught in the U.K. through ‘taste education’. They’ve pledged to train 100 schools in taste education lessons using the TastEd scheme of work, which gives teachers the resources to help children learn to love eating vegetables and fruit, using their senses.
The Peas Please Individual Champion: Recognising outstanding contribution made by an individual working within one of our participating pledger organisations to inspire and demonstrate leadership on their organisation’s Peas Please pledge.
Winner: Amanda Whatley, HC3S
Runner-up: Charlotte Newman, Havering Catering
Amanda’s support for Peas Please and Veg Power has been invaluable, especially during last year’s Peas Please monitoring cycle. She went the extra mile to get the correct data and submit it in time, ensuring that we had the most accurate data available for monitoring.
The Peas Please Innovation Prize: Recognising inspiring and/or innovative activities to support organisational Peas Please pledges and our overall mission of boosting veg consumption.
Winner: Compass, with their Plantilicious! range
Runner-up: Aldi, with Project Fresh
Compass Group launched their plant forward range, Plantilicous, into their business, industry, colleges, universities, and healthcare sites in January 2020. The new plant-based range ensures the vegetable content of meals makes up at least two portions of veg contributing to your 5-a-day.
The Peas Please Pledger Champion: Recognising pledger organisations who have effectively championed and implemented their Peas Please pledge/s across their organisation as a core part of their business proposition, for example including Peas Please in their company reporting.
Winner: Sainsbury’s
Runner-up: Henderson’s Group/SPAR NI
Sainsbury’s have committed to transparent reporting on sales of veg across their business, as well as launching a number of innovative programmes to boost veg consumption. For example, discounting a range of fruit and vegetables to 60p to encourage customers to try new veg, and their ‘Great Big Fruit and Veg Challenge’ – which is personalised to each Nectar customer and rewards them for increasing the portions of fruit and veg they buy.
The Peas Please Rising Star:Recognising new Peas Please pledgers who have made particularly impactful and ambitious pledges for helping us all to eat more veg.
Winner: University of Edinburgh
Shortlisted: Zizzi’s
The University of Edinburgh have pledged to serve more veg across their catering service by adding more servings to pre-prepared grab n go items – doubling the number of veg side-servings options in their retail outlets. They have set SMART targets to implement all this by June 2023.
The Peas Please Good Society Prize: Recognising pledger efforts to decrease inequities in accessing veg, for example around those issues that are particularly relevant to Peas Please such as school food, healthy start, and agricultural initiatives.
Winner: Tesco
Runner-up: Lantra
Tesco were the first Peas Please pledger to add £1 onto the government’s Healthy Start voucher scheme, which provides money for fruit and veg and other essentials for eligible low income families with young children across all of the four nations.
The Veg City Prize: Recognising impactful and integrated place-based approaches to increasing veg uptake at a local level for cities participating in the Veg Cities campaign
During the pandemic Food Cardiff worked to generate mass participation in community growing schemes through the Cardiff Growing Together and Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival. They also worked with the city council to roll out detailed mapping of fruit and vegetable “deserts” in the city in order to provide a robust evidence base to help inform planning policy and enable direct intervention.
The Veg-O-Meter Prize:Recognising the biggest % increase in vegetable portions sold or served by our pledgersbetween 2018/19 and 2019/20 reporting cycles
Winner: Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Runner-up: Veg Cities
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board increased the amount of veg they were serving year on year by a staggering 701.7% from just one of their sites.
You can download the Veg Facts assets here: Graphics
You can download the winner’s rosette badges here: Award Badges
Quotes
Victoria Prentis MP, Under-Secretary of State for Food, Farming and Fisheries
“It was a pleasure to take part in this year’s Veg Summit panel. The UK produces a wonderful and wide range of fruit and vegetables and it is so important that we look at new and innovative ways to increase vegetable consumption as part of a sustainable, balanced diet for everyone. We all need to eat more fruit and vegetables – with too few adults and children getting their recommended 5 A Day portions of fruit and vegetables – and we need to work together to increase these numbers.
That is why it’s so inspiring to see successful action taking place across the food system to promote fruit and veg. I congratulate and thank every one of the winners and finalists for their role to promote and enable sustainable, healthy choices”.
Compass Group UK & Ireland. Liz Forte, Director of Health and Wellbeing, Business and Industry at Compass Group UK & Ireland said:
“We are delighted to have won the Innovation Prize. We are really proud of our Plantilicious range, which puts plant forward food at the heart of our dishes. We have continued to evolve and develop the offer, listening to our consumer feedback. Sales of plant forward dishes are in strong growth and continue to build, currently representing 40% of our food offer. As well as encouraging healthier eating, plant forward is also more sustainable too, as our dishes increase use of seasonal and locally sourced food. Following the announcement of our commitment to reach Climate Net Zero by 2030, new innovations such as the Plantilicious range, contribute towards achieving our targets.”
Strong Roots. Sam Dennigan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Strong Roots said:
“1 in 4 Brits live in Veg Poverty, meaning they can’t afford or access the government’s five-a-day recommendation. Through our Veg Pledge we continue in our mission to Make Veg Poverty History by educating around the issue and affecting change at a grass roots level by increasing the provision of freezers and frozen veg to food banks nationwide. We believe healthy and nutritious food should be accessible to all and we have joined Peas Please to unite with likeminded organisations who are committed to the same goal.”
Anna Taylor OBE, Executive Director, Food Foundation said:
“Although this year’s Peas Please prizes show some great progress being made by many of our pledgers, UK veg consumption remains far too low and it’s really worrying to see dietary inequalities continue to widen. More action urgently needs to be taken by both the retail sector and the food service sectors to support everyone in the UK to eat more veg.”
Rebecca Tobi, Peas Please project manager said:
“It’s fantastic to see so many organisations making such great progress when it comes to promoting, serving, and selling more veg. Particularly during what has undoubtedly been one of the toughest years on record for the UK’s food sector. However, we’ve some way to go before we meet our goal and get everyone in the UK eating more veg, and continued support from pledging organisations will be crucial in helping us to go further faster.”
Three is the magic number as staff at Titanic Hotel Belfast celebrate the treble this week, having received the overall award of Ireland’s Hotel Restaurant of the Year, the regional award of Ulster Hotel Restaurant of the Year and the Great Place to Stay Quality Award. This is the second consecutive year the hotel has been recognised by the Irish Hotels Awards winning these three awards for excellence with the ‘Wolff Grill’ restaurant being judged on the standard of food and service for which it has become renowned.
Adrian McNally, General Manager, Titanic Hotel Belfast, said: “We appreciate the uniqueness of being able to dine in the Titanic Drawing Offices and to sleep in a room overlooking reminders of Belfast’s shipbuilding heritage but to be recognised for our individuality with the Great Place to Stay Quality Award for the second year in a row underpins the everyday emphasis we place on quality, service and cleanliness, factors which were never more important than they are today.
“We pride ourselves in providing our guests with world class service whether they are residents at the hotel, joining us for a business dinner, dining at a wedding or joining us for a leisurely Sunday lunch.
“The combination of winning the regional award for Hotel Restaurant of the Year in Ulster as well as the overall Irish award for Hotel Restaurant of the Year in Ireland two years in a row is really special for the hotel as I’m only too aware of our competition in hotels throughout Ireland.
“These awards are testament to the dedication and commitment of our Executive Chef Nigel Mannion and his team of chefs and kitchen staff in consistently preparing outstanding food and delivering an exceptional standard of service.”
Titanic Hotel Belfast has also been shortlisted for Northern Ireland’s Leading Hotel at this year’s World Travel Awards, having won this accolade every year for the past three years, and you can cast your vote for the fourth consecutive year here: www.worldtravelawards.com/vote.
To experience award winning service and enjoy Summer on the Slipways at Titanic Hotel Belfast, with an overnight stay in a nautical themed room and a two course dinner in the Wolff Grill, followed by a Titanic sized breakfast, from £189 per room, contact the hotel on reservations@titanichotelbelfast.com or by calling +44 (0)28 9508 2000.
The hotel has also been named Wedding Hotel of the Year 2021 – County Antrim, and received the Excellence in Service Award, in recognition of outstanding guest service and customer care, for two years in a row.
It is really encouraging to see the strong influence from Northern Ireland on the development of the inspirational Foundation Earth initiative designed to raise further awareness of the need to focus on preserving our precious and threatened environment. Artisan and smaller food and drink businesses here have already been making a major contribution to sustainability,
The Foundation Earth initiative will roll out eco-scores on food packaging, similar to those we are used to seeing on consumer appliances. It is the brainchild of the late Denis Lynn, the founder of Finnebrogue Artisan in Downpatrick. As I have written before in this column, Finnebrogue is a leading innovator in plant-based food products and a Food NI member company.
The scientific adviser to the new not-for-profit organisation is Queen’s University’s Prof Chris Elliott, the driving force in global food safety, and an expert on food security.
Another key player in the initiative is Dominic Darby, previously on the senior management team at Finnebrogueand now head of innovation at Marks and Spencer Food.
Among the early support pledgers for the scheme is Mash Direct from Comber, another Food NI member company and among our most environmentally friendly food producers. The successful company, of course, draws its focus on the environment from its base on the Hamilton family farm and its vast experience on producing plant foods for international customers. Mash Direct, in addition, has been at the forefront of conservation and recycling schemes in the business and on the family farm.
Global food giants such as Nestlé, alongside retailers including M&S, the Co-op and Sainsbury’s, are among the members of the new organisation which aims to roll out front-of-pack eco-scores on food from September.
This potentially very important labelling scheme will draw on data from the world’s leading systems for measuring the environmental impact of food production – devised by advisory company Mondra and the EU-funded food innovation initiative EIT Food.
It’s an ambitious scheme. The foundation is aiming for a full rollout of the labelling scheme across Europe from next year. What the scheme will do is to indicate carbon emissions, water usage, impact on biodiversity loss and water pollution in a product. The scheme will also analyse a product’s environmental impact from farming, processing, packaging and transport.
The foundation aims “to promote more sustainable buying choices from consumers and more environmentally friendly innovation from food producers, who will be determined to secure a better score”.
Each business pledging support has signed up to “explore the potential for environmental labelling on food products and to support Foundation Earth’s ambition to help build a more sustainable food industry”. A separate scientific committee will be led by Professor Elliott.
It’s a worthy and a very important initiative. Much will depend on how the information is presented on packaging which also often includes nutritional traffic lights. The obvious concern is that labels could become confusing with too much health and safety data on the front. I am sure the experts will come up with a format that makes it easy for consumers to comprehend. I think consumers are ready for it.
It’s almost a relief to see a developing global approach to the growing and threatening environmental challenges from climate change.
Foundation Earth said the scheme would “create a universal eco-labelling scheme that is based on good science and that customers can easily follow”.
UK Environment secretary George Eustice said the foundation’s ambition to develop a universal eco-labelling scheme had “the potential to help address the urgent challenges of sustainability and climate change”.
It’s a great step forward for our industry and heartening to know that it was inspired by the vision of one of our most forward thinking entrepreneurs, Denis Lynn.
