Lost Irish

Last week I was taste-testing whiskeys prepping for my St. Patrick’s Day party, listening to Willie Nelson croon “Whiskey River”, when the whiskey did, in fact, “take my mind”. The next thing I knew, I was on the Sotheby’s auction website bidding on The Richard Gooding Collection. Who is Richard Gooding you ask? He was the scion of the Pepsi Cola Bottling Company, which his grandfather started in 1936. Richard was also the collector of yes, whiskey.

Sadly, Gooding kicked the cask in 2014, but not before collecting over 3,900 bottles of the best of the best, as opposed to what I would do—drink them. Thank God I was outbid on the First Edition Macallan 50-Year-old in a Lalique bottle. I’d have to take out a bank loan to pay the $93,750 sale price. (Hardly a “sale” and besides, not made in Ireland.)

Best I remember, I was testing Writers Tears whiskey, so called because it was the favorite of illustrious Irish scribes including James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker. It’s said that when they cried about being late on a deadline, they cried “tears of whiskey”.

The next morning, I too, shed tears of whiskey, due to a blinding headache. … and being late on the deadline. My state called for a serious remedy: the hair of the dog. Lucky Irish me, I had one last whiskey to taste test: Lost Irish.

I put Chet Baker’s “Let’s Get Lost” on my old school stereo and took a sip. Then another and another… and the next thing I knew, I was on the phone with Lost Irish’s creator, Tim Herlihy…

I tracked you down, as I was testing Irish whiskeys yesterday, and today I discovered I’d unwittingly saved the best for last.

I’m sipping on your Irish Whiskey now, which given that it’s 10:00 am, means I’m day drinking.

Tim Herlihy laughs.

FIRST THINGS FIRST. WHERE ARE YOU FROM IN IRELAND?

I’m from a village called Termonfeckin, County Louth.

HOW OLD ARE YOU:

37 and a half. I’m just faking it until I make it Holly!

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME LOST IRISH?

I thought Lost is a really kinda cool provocative name—lost adventurer, wanderlust. As opposed to “help me I’m lost at sea.” It’s lost in a positive sense. Our motto is Get Lost Stay Lost. It’s playful. I couldn’t tell everyone to Get Lost. We had to put Stay Lost in there, it’s less aggressive. But it’s a fun motto and people get it. Our other one is Born in Ireland, Lost in the World.

You have 5 million people at home in Ireland, but there’s a diaspora of 70 million worldwide that claim Irish ancestry. It’s also the tale of every Irish pub around the world. So I wanted to tell that story in a more modern way.

WHY WHISKEY?

Honestly, I was new to whiskey. I liked whiskey, but I didn’t have the imagination to be like, I can work in a thing I like. I was lucky enough to work with the Irish food board, Board Bia. They started a fellowship program. So in 2009 I was working with Board Bia and the Cooley Distillery and that was how I got into it.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR CHILDHOOD:

Yeah, my dad has a family business, it’s an egg farm, so we’re pretty countryside. And I have two younger sisters.

My business partner Neil Sands was also my neighbor so we grew up together in Termonfeckin. We knew each other a long time before whiskey ever entered either of our minds.

HOW DID YOU GET INTO THIS BUSINESS?

I first got into Whiskey at the Cooley Center way back in 2009. Then most of my whiskey stardom comes from my time with Tullamore Dew, where I was U.S. ambassador based out of New York from 2011 to 2020. I had a team of Irish people spreading the good word across America of Tullamore Dew.

We did lots of great events, whether it was world record-sized Irish coffees, or I did 50 states in 30 days looking for the best Irish pubs around America. I made it look difficult so that no one else would do it!

DO TELL, WHERE’S THE BEST IRISH PUB?

It’s really easy, it’s right here in NY, it’s called Swift on Bowery and E. 4th St. and it’s like stepping into a pub in Dublin. It’s brilliant. It has a great whiskey selection and brilliant pints and it happens to be my local!

PERFECT TIMING:

Right? The growth of Irish Whiskey is phenomenal, particularly in America. I joined the whiskey revolution when there were 4 distilleries in 2007 in Ireland, and now we’re at 45 plus.

PLEASE TELL ME YOU MADE YOUR FIRST BATCH IN A BATHTUB.

No! (Laughs). In County Louth, there’s the Great Northern Distillery and we worked with them to develop our whiskey.

I source casks from 6 continents and bring them back home to Ireland. I always tell people that 70% of a whiskey’s flavor comes from the cask. So the more interesting the more different types of cask you have, the more colorful or flavorful whiskey you can make.

So I sourced these casks, and brought them back to the Great Northern Distillery. We matured and finished the Whiskey in those casks and I blended them together in different proportions to get the liquor you have in your bottle.

I’D LOVE A WHISKEY EDUCATION.

There are three Irish Whiskey styles. The first is grain whiskey it’s made from corn, light delicate, and quite sweet. A lovely component. We use that in

The casks collected from six continents are used for distilling Lost Irish Whiskey. Photo: Lost Irish Whiskey

combination with single-malt whiskey. With malt whiskey, you get tons of fruit notes and that’s another great component. The third style is single pot still, and that is a mash of malted and unmalted whiskey, that will give you creamy texture, spice, pepperiness, and liveliness on the palate.

Most Irish whiskeys would use two of those three. So if I’m Jameson, I use grained pot still and I don’t have malt; whereas if I’m Bushmills I use grain and malt.

Whether it’s three whiskey styles or casks from six continents, I have a simple belief that more is more. I like to take all the styles and all the cask influences. Basically think of it like an artist who’s painting, the more colors they have the more interesting the painting is. That’s our approach to whiskey. The ultimate end flavor in Lost Irish.

I wanted to create a whiskey that was flavorsome but also friendly. You don’t need to be hurt or taste that whiskey burn, it’s more of a whiskey hug. Really good whiskey doesn’t have to hurt you.

WHAT’S THE SECRET IN YOUR SAUCE?

Our real secret sauce is our 6 continent casks. Most bourbon and sherry, if we’re going to be called Lost Irish and talk about the Irish influence all over the world, we better live up to that and source casks from all over the world. And I think when so much flavor comes from those casks, that’s really our difference.

WHEN LAST TIME YOU WOKE UP WITH HANGOVER?

Last Sunday. I was at a friend’s birthday in Astoria, we went to his bar Murphy’s. I get hangovers, but I power through them. Just get on with it. Particularly when you do what I do, it can’t slow you down. So I do my best to moderate.

DO YOU HAVE A HANGOVER CURE?

It’s got to be an Irish breakfast. My egg-farming roots are always going to suggest that. An Irish breakfast with great eggs. But also, an Irish coffee. It’s got the four major food groups with Irish coffee: alcohol, sugar, caffeine, and fat!