Blind Tasting at Neighbourhood Cafe | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 22 Jul 2024
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/24/260

Some events announce themselves loudly — grand distillery names, celebrated bottlings, a meticulously printed programme. Session 36 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2024 took a different road entirely. Hosted at the welcoming Neighbourhood Cafe in Belfast city centre, this blind tasting evening threw the rulebook out the window and asked one simple question of its guests: do you trust us? As it turned out, they did — and they were well rewarded for it.

About This Event

Surprise Guests join Neighbourhood Cafe tonight in what will be a blind tasting event. Do you trust us? Food and Drinks galore. We might even drop hints closer to the time... or not...

Looking Back

There is something quietly thrilling about walking into a whiskey event without knowing what you are about to taste. The duchas of Belfast has always had a streak of mischief running through it, and Session 36 leaned into that beautifully. Neighbourhood Cafe, a cosy and characterful spot in the heart of the city, had been transformed into something between a supper club and a parlour game — tables set, glasses polished, and not a label in sight. Anticipation hung in the air like peat smoke.

The blind tasting format stripped away the familiar anchors that whiskey drinkers often rely upon — the distillery name, the age statement, the brand story. What remained was the liquid itself, and the honest reaction it drew from the palate. Guests were invited to nose, sip, and speculate, scribbling impressions and hazarding guesses before the reveals came. It was, in the truest sense, a conversation between the drinker and the uisce beatha — no intermediary, no preconception. Several attendees later admitted that bottles they might have overlooked on a back bar became instant favourites once freed from the weight of expectation.

The surprise guests added another layer of delight to the evening. While we will not spoil the reveal here for those who may encounter a similar format at future festivals, it is worth noting that the wider BWW programme has long celebrated the depth and range of Ulster and Irish whiskey. Those curious about the stories behind the distilleries featured across the week might enjoy exploring sessions such as the Bushmills History MasterClass or the deep dive offered by the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass — both of which reward the kind of attentive, curious tasting that Session 36 so warmly encouraged.

Food, of course, was no afterthought. Neighbourhood Cafe is exactly the kind of place that understands whiskey and food as natural companions rather than awkward bedfellows. The kitchen turned out dishes that complemented and contrasted the drams in equal measure — richness meeting warmth, brightness cutting through weight. The pairing element gave the evening a coherence and a rhythm that kept energy high from the first pour to the last. By the time guests were coaxed into their final reveal, the room had the easy, animated warmth of old friends at the end of a long table.

Session 36 was a reminder that the best whiskey experiences are rarely just about whiskey. They are about curiosity, about company, about the particular pleasure of being surprised. For those who want to trace the fuller seanchas of Irish whiskey across the festival, our Whiskey Map is a fine place to begin your own journey — guided, this time, by a little more information than the guests of Session 36 were given. Sláinte mhaith.