Here at the Isle of Barra Distillers we like to keep our followers and customers up to date with our goings on and to share with you the work and time put into each week from our team. It’s not all just drinking Gin we promise!

There’s a first for everything and on Monday evening we experienced our first ever Poetry Slam at Stereo Café Bar in Glasgow’s City Centre. Matchstick Poetry which was established in Europe 4 years ago has held many Poetry Slams in Austria, Slovakia & Hungary through time, with Monday evening being the first in Scotland. We were delighted to be involved and provide Matchstick Poetry with a bottle of our Island Spirit as first prize for the lucky winner. For those of you that don’t know much about a Poetry Slam…which we were guilty of ourselves, it is an evening where talented poets go on stage and showcase their incredible work and quirky styles. The audience get to judge the points each artist should receive and who gets through to the next round. Aside from the poets, there was live music performances and great hosting from Florian, the founder of Matchstick Poetry. It really was a fantastic evening and something different to experience!

The following evening, we switched from Poetry to Seaweed and took off to Oban to attend The Scottish Seaweed Industry Association’s Annual Gathering where we held a Barra Atlantic Gin Drinks Reception for Guests arrival at Cuan Mor, prior to their evening meal. Here we set up a grand display in full Isle of Barra Distillers Spirit and welcomed Guests with our recommended serve of Barra Gin & Tonic’s for them to enjoy, while we engaged and shared the story of our Island Home and our Distillery. It was a fantastic turn out of approximately 70 Guests with different nationalities and let’s just say they were having as much fun as we did! We were delighted to be a part of such an important gathering and our Gin couldn’t have been more fitting for the cause with our key botanical being Carrageen Seaweed!

The highlight of this week has to be our collaboration with one of Scotland’s best-known restaurants, Two Fat Ladies! We have been working closely with the incredible team at Two Fat Ladies for some time now, with our Island Spirit being stocked here. However, this week we moved forward and have become Two Fat Ladies House Pour for all their restaurants - The Buttery, The Shandon Belles and Two Fat Ladies in The City – An incredible achievement for our small team and we couldn’t be prouder! We popped in to catch up and meet more of the team this week and conducted a short training session where we shared stories on our Gin, our Distillery, our Island and it’s weird and wonderful traditions. And of course, we served more G&T’s, for the staff to enjoy for a wee change!

Finally, we finished the week at Distinction Health & Beauty in Clarkston, Glasgow. Gin in a Salon…what’s not to love? We worked closely with the girls at Distinction to create a zen environment for this evening event where clients enjoyed a relaxing evening with specialised treatments and a few drinks including our Barra Atlantic Gin & Tonic! It was a great evening with a fantastic turn out of approximately 40 guests!

We hope you have had as wonderful a week as we have had and look forward to engaging with you in next week’s Journal!