The best cocktail in all of Ireland has been revealed

Sounds good to us!

As we reported last month, Irish Cocktail Month took place in all 32 counties in the country throughout October. Each of the bars that got involved in the month were coming up with their own unique creation to put forward for the prestigious award of Best Cocktail in Ireland. Each of the entries must include an Irish spirit as part of the concoction, in order to qualify for the "Irish" part of the "Best Irish Cocktail" award, which makes sense, really. Last year, the prize went to The Lodge at Ashford Castle in Cong, County Mayo, for their cocktail the Wilde's Atlantic Way (that is a picture of it up top, btw), which included the Connemara Peated Single Malt Irish Whiskey. This year, the votes were closed on 1 November, the numbers were tallied up, and the winner is... (drum roll please) The "Bee Right With You" from The Grand Hotel in Fermoy, Cork. Great Irish Beverages, the organisers of the Irish Cocktail Month, tell us that this cocktail is made as follows: "Seeing as [the bar is] located right by the Blackwater river, it would have been rude not to work with the lovely gin from Blackwater Distillery! This is then mixed with house made honey bitters made from the hives of S Bees in Fermoy - bitters is a special liquid that bartenders use to season cocktails - and crystallised calendula flower petals from Botanica & Co Fermoy before being set alight. "It is then mixed with more of the Fermoy honey , lime juice, lemon juice, a pinch of cinnamon, a splash of premium tonic water and egg white. After being shaken vigorously with ice, it's then strained into an ice cold martini glass and garnished with a honey tuile and some more calendula petals." The Grand Hotel's cocktail barman John Coleman, who created the concoction, had this to say: "I see cocktail creations not just bringing together ingredients, but businesses as well, both big and small. My ethos is to always use Irish spirits and mixers as your base, and look to your locality for other ingredients, be it the farmer's market, orchard or fruit farm, bee keeper, herbalist or any other businesses."