Historical story
In 1971, a committee of senior managers in Gilbeys of Ireland had the idea for a uniquely Irish drink reflecting Ireland’s heritage and agricultural and distilling traditions.
Baileys first appeared in a ten gallon milkchurn by accident in 1974 because they had been trying to get the whiskey to mix with the cream.
The whiskey is a grain whiskey, and then is blended in with about 50% cream. Back in the old days, a way to handle an upset stomach was to mix whiskey and cream together. It would soothe your stomach. The problem was that the two would not mix well together for long - but Bailey's found a secret way to get the mixture to stay.
No one had managed to blend cream and whiskey before and it took years of patient work, plus a little chocolate and vanilla, to create the truly amazing taste.
Finally, on November 26th 1974 there was an almost magical accident and a new type of drink was born: the cream liqueur.
What actually happens is that they mix the chocolate mix, ( cocoa nibs and vanilla )add burnt sugar( caramel),sugar and then whiskey with the cream to make the famous drink that has a shelf life of 2 years.
So you may think its easy to make but it took them three years to make it.
Ah yes, but do you have any links or references for that? I was brought up to believe that it was a way of getting rid of surplus milk in the bad old days of the EU milk lake.
ReplyDeletenot to mention the calories per bottle, henry ....;)
ReplyDeleteVery interesting - I bought a cheap M&S 'version' and it's nowhere near as good - serves me right for being a cheapskate!
ReplyDeleteBlech.
ReplyDeleteI did once love this, but think I over did it one year. Now I can't even smell it.
To all those people who come here from a google search please have a look round the rest of the blog
ReplyDelete