When Dubliner Jim O’Connor returned home six years ago after 25 years abroad, he and wife Sheila had an idea: Dublin City Gin.
“We wanted to do an Irish product,” he recalls. “Folks used to ask us all the time to bring them home a Dublin gin, but lo and behold there wasn't one.
“So I put in for the trademark, we won the trademark and then we had to try and figure out how to make this gin.”
Jim had spent his time abroad working as Head of Branding and Creative for Disney consumer products – first in Hong Kong and then for nearly a decade in Los Angeles – and he says that it was the firm’s taste for the high life that got him interested in cocktails and spirits.
"Going around the world with Disney, you eat in the top-notch places,” he smiles. “They weren't shy of a few pennies to have a good time.
“I always say that Mickey Mouse drove me to drink.”
Dublin City Gin is a small batch, craft spirit that Jim likes to say is an “Irish gin with a Dublin accent”. That local flavour comes from rhubarb that Jim and his wife Sheila cultivate beside the Grand Canal here in Dublin.
“We needed one core botanical, and the only one that actually grows in Ireland is rhubarb,” Jim explains. “Instead of just buying it from the local shop we wanted to grow it.
“Myself and Sheila pick it and prepare it, and then when everything is ready, including the bottles, we go down to Blackwater [Distillery in Waterford] where we have a still, and we produce it down there.”
This husband-and-wife team have already been enormously successful. In just two years of production, Dublin City Gin has already picked up no less than 12 gold medals in competition – most recently at the World Gin Awards where they won the title of Best Irish.
“We always said we wanted to be the best in Ireland, and we've got medals saying that we are,” says Jim.
Of course, the coronavirus crisis has been debilitating for the drinks industry. In this instance, though, the cost is more in terms of time than money.
“For us it's another year gone,” Jim says, “but we're happy. We don't have big overheads because we don't have our own four walls yet – we do everything from home.
“We don't have many sales going on and it's a very hard time to be knocking on someone's door, no matter where they are in the world, and saying, 'Hey, remember us?'.
“Once things start to settle down, it'll start to come back to us.”
Jim says that Dublin City Gin is “ticking over” here in Ireland – it’s currently in a range of off-licences, supermarkets, on Irish Ferries and at the airport, but not yet in bars.
Aside from that, there has been interest in the product from all over the world, with “about 12 countries pending” before the crisis hit, and Jim is keen to emphasise the appeal of quality Irish produce abroad.
“We have loads of interest,” he says. “They love the brand name and the look and feel of Dublin – and because of our awards.
“You can hang your hat on one gold medal, but when you say you have 12 they choke up. It doesn't matter who you're talking to, people don't know what to say.
“So ours is geared up to be an Irish gin, and a Dublin gin, for the tourist trade. When we go abroad, we can add another medal to our bottle, which is ‘Irish’. 'Product of Ireland' is a huge call-out.”
While Jim and Sheila wait to capitalise on that interest, other plans are afoot – not least the addition of another spirit to the portfolio. Whiskey is a waiting game due to its very nature but Jim says that Dublin City Whiskey is “coming of age” at Great Northern Distilleries in Dundalk.
However, gin remains the priority and Jim is hopeful that with the end of the crisis, the orders will start coming in.
“People laughed at us at the beginning when we said we'd be the best in Ireland,” he says, “but it's been a big learning curve and thankfully we've been very successful brand-wise and quality-wise.
“Hopefully, in the months to come, we'll actually start making money!"
