An Irish entrepreneur has launched an Irish whiskey in Philadelphia which promises to satisfy the palate of the "young, sophisticated executive". Gerry Moan, a businessman from Co Armagh is the Managing Director of BAHA Irish Whiskeys - a range of grain and malt whiskey, triple distilled and aged in Dundalk, Co Louth.
BAHA whiskeys, created with spring water flowing through the mythical Cooley Mountains, hit the shelves in the UK, Ireland, and Spain in 2021 before making its way to the US last year where it was met with resounding success.
"We've grown BAHA out from Philadelphia. We wanted the whiskey to step off from the city the same way the constitution did. It's one of the first places the Irish landed, too, so I wanted it to be the first place we cut our teeth.
"It's not easy getting into Pennsylvania. There are stringent licensing laws and you have to get approval from every body including the Pennsylvania State Liquor Board but we got approval within weeks rather than months.
"This is a new version of 'Irish'. It's not the beer-swilling, shot-drinking, dive-bar Irish whiskey, and it's not for getting hammered on. It's for the sophisticated, young executive."
Gerry first visited Philadelphia in 2015 when he was invited to the city as part of a group of start-ups working with the Irish American Business Chamber. He "fell in love" with the place and began working everywhere from Havertown to Center City twice a month for 10 days at a time when he masterminded the whiskey venture.
Gerry's love of whiskey came from his Uncle Michael, a fellow businessman from South Armagh who "he couldn't visit without a bottle of whiskey which he couldn't leave without drinking".
Gerry continued: "Time spent drinking whiskey with my Uncle Michael educated my palate. I knew if I was going to do anything with whiskey it would be in memory of his entrepreneurship. We've designed BAHA around the palate of people in their 20s and 30s. It makes me shudder to think about the whiskey I drank when I was younger!
"Tullamore Dew and Jameson call it a shot of whiskey, meaning you end up with a pint of Guinness and a shot but I wanted to move away from that and make whiskey a drink young people enjoy and sip or have in cocktails.
"The knot we have on the front of the bottle is synonymous with Celtic friendship and we called it BAHA from the Irish for 'whiskey' but changed the spelling slightly so young people can easily say it.
"The fact it's distilled in Dundalk, a border community between the north and south of Ireland, is part and parcel of why it's connected to Philly, too. Philly often sees itself as the poor neighbor of other places on the east coast, which I can relate to. The whiskey is about unity of spirit, though, and stepping up and acting outside your box.
This article originally appeared here