Taste of Dublin 2016; Our Winning Stand!

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BlackCastleDrinksTasteofDublin

Would you look at us! We made it, we actually won the Bank of Ireland competition for a Free stand at the Taste of Dublin 2016 Festival. We received over 3000 public votes after being shortlisted to 5 small food businesses and came out on top. Just; organisers said it was so close between all entries!

The Bank of Ireland team and their designers did a fab job on our stand. The concept we wanted to achieve was a Craft Soda Bar so with a raised counter, double fridge and stools we were able to invite festivals goers to prop up our bar and have a refreshing Black Castle craft soft drink!

Over the 4 day festival we sold more than 1,500 bottles and were thrilled with the response we got from the public. As a new company we cannot explain how great it was for brand awareness, helping get the word out there about our new grown up soft drinks. 

We were mentioned by the craft beer blog Simon Say's Beer, where our crafts sodas stood along side some great brews! http://simonsaysbeer.com/2016/06/19/taste-of-dublin/ 

We were mentioned by the craft beer blog Simon Say's Beer, where our crafts sodas stood along side some great brews! http://simonsaysbeer.com/2016/06/19/taste-of-dublin/ 

We were also ask to supply the Citroen DS Hospitality event during Taste of Dublin as they wanted a sophisticated non-alcoholic option for their guests. One lovely tweeted the following...

 What a brilliant festival, thanks to Bank of Ireland, Taste of Dublin and everyone who voted for us and helped get us there! 

Below is a short video featuring ourselves and last year's winners The Little Milk Company, giving you a taste  of our experience! (pun intended!)

Black Castle Drinks wins a stand at Taste of Dublin 2016!

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tasteofdublin2016

Woooooo hoooo! We won! 

Thanks to you, the public, we managed to come first in the Bank of Ireland competition to win a stand at this year's Taste of Dublin! There were over 3,000 votes in what was a very close competition according to the organisers. 

JohnandRiva

The festival runs over 4 days from 16th - 19th June in the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin. We cannot wait to serve up refreshing craft sodas to the expected 34,000 attendees from our very own 'Black Castle Soda Bar'.

Massive THANK YOU again to all those who voted for us, it really does give us a huge boost to know we have so much support out there! 

Hope to see you at the festival!

We Got Experimental for Pancake Tuesday!

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BerryBrambleSting
Pancake

BERRY BRAMBLE STING  BREAKFAST PANCAKES!

Instead of milk, we decided to try our fruity Blackberry and Nettle soft drink in the batter mix. It was a triumph! So tasty and made the pancakes light and fluffy with a slight pinkish tone to them (although hard to see in the pics above). We then topped them with fresh strawberries, blueberries, flaked almonds, a dollop of natural yoghurt and a squeeze of honey. Healthy, nutritious and most of all tasty!

GingerBeer
GingerBeerPancakes

TOTALLY TROPICAL GINGER BEER PANCAKES

We then went with the taste of the Caribbean and added our Fiery Ginger Beer to the mix, replacing the milk again. Another great combination! This time we used lime juice instead of lemon, some Demerera sugar, some sweet pineapple and a dusting of cinnamon! And who doesn't love buying and chopping up a pineapple! It was a lovely ray of sunshine on a cold February evening. And definitely should not be confined to Pancake Tuesday, it'd make a great weekend treat! DO IT!