Beár Bia Podcast Hits West Cork With the Yuletide season now in full swing, this is the time of year in Ireland when we like to indulge a little. A mid-morning mince pie, a cheeky Christmas sambo or maybe even a wee drop or two of an Irish cream liqueur. Such are the treats we gift ourselves during the festive period. This is what inspired us to reach out to the good folk from Five Farms Irish Cream Liqueur as enjoying their fine product at the end of a Christmas dinner is a tradition t...

For the latest episode of the Beár Bia podcast, we hit the road for Sligo City to spend some quality time in the company of a master whiskey blender, a legendary brewer, a local oyster producer and a publican par excellence! It all took place in the cosy surroundings of Hargadon's, a traditional gastropub and bottle shop. Co-owner Morgan Kerins was there to greet us and talked us through its great history as well as all the many elements that make this pub one of the finest in the count...

On Thursday, October 16th, the Beár Bia podcast hosted its first live and ticketed recording event. It took place at The Shed Distillery in Drumshanbo, down in County Leitrim. It was a celebration of the modern, iconic Irish brand, Gunpowder Gin, with its wonderfully complex range of international and local botanicals. The gin's inspired mix of spice and citrus notes lends itself remarkably well to food pairings, and both the food and Gunpowder gin cocktails on the night were all delicious.&n...

There are many individuals across the island of Ireland who are game changers in how they passionately engage within the restaurant and bar industry. On the Beár Bia podcast, we like to call them "Hospitality Heroes" and whenever we can, we like to showcase them and the great work they do. And that's exactly what we've done with our latest episode as we took a trip to the McNally Family Farm in the Ring Commons North County Dublin to spend some time with Jenny and her daughter Niamh McN...

It took them long enough, but Dee Laffan and Oisin Davis of the Beár Bia travelling podcast finally made it to Cork! And not only did they get to hang out with one of their favourite drinks producers - the wonderful Daniel Emerson of Stonewell Cider, but they also got to do it in the legendary pub, Cronin's of Crosshaven on a sun-filled day, so they got to soak up the beautiful surrounds while they were there. They were there to meet Daniel Emerson of Stonewell Irish Cider and his lat...

It's one of Ireland's largest gatherings of top tier Irish food & drink producers, so it's always great to be down at Bord Bia Bloom in the Phoenix Park. This year, the Bloom team there engaged with Irishbeer.ie and Beár Bia to highlight pairings made with breweries and food makers who would all be at Bloom. Produced over two episodes, our first saw us pair Irish beers with Irish seafoods, and for our second, we looked at something more sweet and savoury! To supply us with beers and...

Kickstarting things off for 2025, the first two episodes of this new season will highlight beer and food producers who are exhibiting at one of Ireland's largest festivals, Bord Bia Bloom at Phoenix Park. With a little help from IrishBeer.ie, they decided to first see which of the participating beers would work best paired with fish and seafood. The results are delicious! EPISODE 1 If you’re going to be sampling some of Ireland’s best seafood, the setting is key. Thankfully, the good folk ove...

When we saw that our final two episodes would land in late December, we knew we had to go festive! So we called upon a few friends to see if they could share their favourite Irish Christmas and Irish New Year's Day meals and we would pair some Irish drinks with them. Each pairing falls into a different episode but they both feature the same guests and each episode was recorded in Row Wines on Coppinger Row in Dublin. Our very special guests were social media star and musician Garron Noon...

Our first season of Beár Bia has been one hell of an adventure. We have recorded in 12 different locations across 6 counties. Along the way, we have showcased 24 different Irish food producers, 22 Irish drinks producers as well as 13 hospitality or retail businesses. It's been extremely inspiring getting to know all the remarkable makers of some of Ireland's most beloved culinary offerings. Bringing them together and pairing them at the same table for each episode has not just been a gre...

The county of Kildare is renowned the world over for its thriving equine industry but more recently, its food & drink producers have taken a bigger share of the spotlight. At the invitation of Kildare Local Enterprise Office, we were thrilled to pop down and check out a couple of leading lights from the county's ever-burgeoning culinary scene.It is well documented that St Brigid of Kildare was quite the fan of beer so as a mark of respect to the great lady herself, we decided to focus on ...

The wonderful Smithwick's is one of Ireland's most iconic brands. It is deeply connected to its hometown of Kilkenny and is particularly well celebrated by the local hospitality community there. Kilkenny also boasts a highly active festival circuit so we wanted to tick a couple of boxes while down there. A fantastic trip was had where we hung out in The Smithwick's Experience to learn more about their beers, sampled some excellent food pairings and got the inside scoop for this week's h...

It's just a couple of hours from Dublin and boasts spectacular coastlines, amazing heritage sites and some rather brilliant food & drink producers. We're talking about north county Down and the Ards peninsula, a culinary destination to rival any other on the island of Ireland. Thanks to a kind invitation from the Irish Food Writers Guild and Visit Ards and North Down, we recently hopped on a whistlestop tour of this beautiful part of the world. In addition to local food markets, farm...

Tipperary might well be renowned the world over for its majestic castles and monuments, but here at Beár Bia HQ - the most important thing you need to know about it, is that it's Dee's home county! So it was obviously just a question of time before we made the "trip to Tipp" and tasted some of its best culinary offerings.The Tipperary Food Producers network is a community of artisan producers working together to create quality, nourishing food and sustainability. We reached out to them to see...

Up and down the 32 counties, there are vast amounts of bar, restaurant and hotel owners whose great work in celebrating the entire Irish culinary landscape needs to be showcased. They are Irish Hospitality Heroes and for our sixth episode, we wanted to shine a light on what the newly reopened Coppinger team are doing. So we sat down with co-owner and founder Marc Bereen and executive chef of the group, Daniel Hannigan.Coppinger Row, as it was first called, opened in 2009 and its perfect mix o...

Showcasing hospitality heroes within the Irish food & drink scene was something that we always wanted to do on the Beár Bia podcast. All around the 32 counties, there are huge amounts of bar, restaurant and hotel owners who are game changers when it comes to pairing our native culinary offerings. None more so than Seáneen Sullivan from L Mulligan Grocer in Stoneybatter, Dublin. The famous pub and restaurant has been a firm favourite of locals and visitors alike since they started tra...

For episode four, we are taking a trip to Dublin's Liberties and making our way to Roe & Co Irish Whiskey Distillery. Their 2024 Summer Garden Series is in full swing. Now in its fifth year, it sees the front outdoor space of the James's Street distillery turned into a dining area with a rotating set of guest chefs and restaurants who each create a bespoke menu to pair with Roe & Co whiskey and cocktails.From August 1st until the 24th, The Salt Project will be the resident restaurant....

For episode three, we shifted our focus to Big Grill, Europe's largest BBQ and food festival, which takes place in Herbert Park, Dublin on August 22nd - 25th. We wanted to engage with one of their Irish drinks partners and pair their drinks with dishes from participating festival restaurants.Dingle Distillery were keen to collaborate and their Dingle Gin became the star of the show! It is distilled, bottled and packaged on-site in Dingle, Kerry. Among its many botanicals, you will find local ...

In this special episode, supported by Bord Bia, we ventured to Bloom in the Park on the June bank holiday weekend, where we curated three pairings from the huge array of Irish food and drink producers that were present for the event. We were joined by each producer pairing as follows: Kinsale Mead Co. and Burren Smokehouse Micíl Cream Liqueur and Áine's Chocolates Cooleeney Farmhouse Cheese with Ballykilcavan Craft BeerCo-hosted as always by Oisín Davis and Dee Laffan.&nbs...

Our first episode focuses on the garden county as we pair two different Wicklow drinks with two different Wicklow foods. We picked up some amazing Ridgeway wagyu beef, cooked and served by Barry Walllace of Dash Burger, and paired with Wicklow Wolf Brewery's Solstice Tropical Sour. The other pairing featured Ballyhubbock Farm's sheep's milk halloumi cheese alongside a cocktail made with raspberry wine from Wicklow Way Wines and Powerscourt Distillery's Fercullen Falls whiskey.For photos, vide...