Shannon International Airport deal for Northern Ireland’s RubyBlue

Craft Hughes Distillery, the artisan business that has developed a range of fruit liqueurs using Irish grain spirit and recently launched RubyBlue, Ireland’s first potato vodka, has won its first business at Shannon International Airport Duty Free.
The small batch distillery, based at Lisburn in county Antrim, is supplying four natural fruit liqueurs to the duty free in Wild Cranberry, Wild Blueberry, Wild Blackcurrant and Chilli Pepper flavours.
The contract with Shannon airport, which links Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way tourism attraction with the US, follows the distillery’s other recent success – a deal to supply its RubyBlue Vodka to The Loop retail outlet at Dublin International Airport. The company has been supplying its range of fruit liqueurs to Dublin airport for many years.
Barbara Hughes, commercial director of the family-owned and managed distillery, says: “Gaining a foothold at Shannon is an immensely important development for us because it positions us at the heart of the Wild Atlantic Way, which is being marked extensively in the US by the Republic’s tourism agencies and is proving a hugely successful initiative.
“Our fruit liqueurs make ideal gifts for travellers wishing to take the natural flavours of Ireland and Irish spring water…with the ‘kick’ from Irish grain spirit…home with them.”
RubyBlue liqueurs are five times distilled then charcoal filtered to remove any impurities and blended with fresh fruit for zesty and original flavours. The handcrafted liqueurs are all bottle-conditioned naturally for up to eight weeks without any flavour enhancers or preservatives.
The distillery was established in 2010 by Stuart and Barbara Hughes and currently exports the liqueurs to Europe, Scandinavia, the Middle East, Turkey and Australia. The liqueurs can be consumed ‘neat’ for a refreshing fruit drink or mixed with gin or vodka to create a deliciously different cocktail.