For a long time, Irish cream has been synonymous with the Diageo-owned Baileys. But is the tide starting to change? Lizzy O’Riordan investigates
When it entered the drinks market in the early 1970s – then part of the Gilbeys of Ireland portfolio – Baileys was not meant to be a Christmas drink. Instead, according to David Gluckman, part of the founding team, the product was initially conceived to benefit from Ireland’s reputation for high-quality dairy production, already famous thanks to the Kerrygold butter brand.
Flip forward to the modern day, however, and the drink is synonymous with the festive season. NIQ data supplied to Drinks Retailing showed the four weeks to 28 December 2024 generated £87.3m in sales value for the Irish cream liqueur category compared to £11.9m in the four weeks to January 2025.
A lot of this is Baileys. Head into any major retailer in the months of November or December and it’s likely you’ll see a promotional offer on the trademark black bottle. Last year, Sainsbury’s reduced its 1-litre bottle from £21.95 to £10; Tesco followed suit, reducing the same size to £12; Morrisons likewise lowered it to £13.
Yet, as the drinks market continues to veer toward premiumisation, the question arises as to whether the Diageo-owned brand will continue to monopolise the festive liqueur market with big promotions, or if there’s a growing appetite for more artisan liqueurs instead.
Mary Sadlier, who is Zooming from a farm in County Meath when we catch up, thinks Diageo will remain the industry giant. The CEO of Coole Swan – a premium Irish cream liqueur brand – Sadlier explains that it doesn’t see itself as a competitor to Baileys. “They are an elephant and I’m a mouse, right?” she says, referencing the brand’s inability to compete on volume and pricing.
On the other hand, she continues, producers such as Coole Swan can rival Baileys when it comes to quality. Baileys has long been consumed as a dessert drink, but Coole Swan reaches a different audience by moving away from the sweet association. “It’s going back to being a sipping drink,” she says.
Comparing it to a similar renaissance in tequila and mezcal, Sadlier says: “There’s a shift where consumers are reading the back of labels. They want quality and brands that don’t treat them like data points.”
This, she thinks, is especially true among younger consumers, who she says have developed a fatigue around high-volume, low-price products.
As for Christmas competition, Sadlier notes Coole Swan isn’t a product that’s designed or marketed purely as a festive product. It’s created to be a high-quality, year-round beverage.
Shane McCarthy, co-founder of Two Stacks, based just outside of Newry in Northern Ireland, also appeals to consumers on quality rather than price. McCarthy says he was surprised that when he launched Two Stacks, primarily as a whiskey brand, it was the Double Irish Cream Liqueur that became its bestseller.
McCarthy attributes the brand’s popularity to fatigue with large brands. He also points to better flavour delivery due to the quantity of whiskey in the product. Referencing the legal definition of Irish cream, McCarthy clarifies that it only technically needs to use a minimum of 1% Irish whiskey, going up to a maximum of 8%.
“Many brands [including Baileys, as per its website] use a mixture of whiskey and grain neutral spirit, whereas we use 8% fully premium Irish whiskey, so when you blind taste it against what’s on the market, it blows people away.”
For Tara O’Reilly, manager at Five Farms, based in County Cork, the angle is slightly different. Returning to the original concept of Irish creams, Five Farms’ USP is the quality of Irish dairy. The drink is “crafted using fresh, single-batch cream sourced from family-owned dairy farms in County Cork, Ireland, just hours after milking”, O’Reilly explains.
Leaning into provenance, O’Reilly continues: “Sourcing all our cream from family-run farms in County Cork isn’t just about geography; it’s about heritage, freshness, and a sense of place.” This is something she says consumers are drawn to, in an age of an “increasingly globalised market”.
Seeing success so far, O’Reilly explains that the brand has seen strong growth, both at Christmas and year-round.
Two Stacks likewise boasts growth in the UK and beyond – available at Master of Malt, Fortnum & Mason and The Whisky Exchange in the UK – with a national listing across 350 stores coming to the US market soon. The same story is true of Coole Swan, which Sadlier says is experiencing “double-digit growth overall”.
So, while the Diageo-owned brand certainly isn’t going to disappear, there is a steady rise of alternative options vying to become all-year-round favourites, based not on price or volume, but the calibre of the liquid – a thought that sounds a lot like David Gluckman’s original premise those many years ago.
