Chocolate Manor Whiskey Chocolates | Belfast Whiskey Week 2023

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

Filed: 15 Jul 2023
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/23/764

There are afternoons at Belfast Whiskey Week that linger long in the memory — not just for the whiskey, but for what surrounds it. The Wednesday afternoon session with Geri Martin of Chocolate Manor at Waterman House Cookery School was precisely that kind of occasion: two and a half hours of craft, conversation, and the deeply satisfying combination of uisce beatha and hand-made chocolate.

About This Event

Let’s join Geri Martin from Chocolate Manor as she takes over Waterman House Cookery School to allow you to create some delicious Whiskey Chocolates. What better way to spend your Wednesday Afternoon than by making Chocolates with one of Ireland’s most celebrated Chocolatiers, while sipping whiskies and liking your spoons clean! Timeslot: 12pm-3pm Start Time: 12:30pm Duration: 2.5hrs Venue: Waterman Drinks: 4 Drams Type: Chocolate Making Disclaimers Please note that individual dietary requirements are not being catered for with any food at this event. Each Brand/Distillery and Collaborative Partner have agreed to our Min/Max Pour Policy. Please Respect this, and enjoy your festival responsibly. Festival Participants who are deemed to be too inebriated, or are not respecting themselves, will not be permitted into events and venues. ALL Hosts/Ushers/Collaborators and Venue Staff have the right to refuse participants without question and recourse. Please Drink Responsibly. All events are only available to those 18 years old and over. Do not purchase tickets if you are under the age of 18. Be prepared to produce ID if required. Venue staff & ushers may ask you to provide ID when showing your valid tickets. You may be refused enter to events if you can’t prove your age. Some venues may change, if they do, you will be notified. All events are subject to changes out of the control of the festival organisers. Any issues, please contact us @belfastwhiskeyweek on socials, or via email on marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com or 07773675179 (8am-8pm) to discuss. NO Refunds will be given. Please only buy tickets if you are prepared to attend the event. Tickets are transferable. If you are going to transfer tickets please email, marketing@belfastwhiskeyweek.com

Looking Back

Waterman House, a venue that wears its heritage with quiet confidence while remaining firmly rooted in the present, proved the ideal setting for this particular Wednesday indulgence. Its cookery school space gave the afternoon a practical, roll-your-sleeves-up energy that felt entirely right for what Geri Martin had planned. This wasn't a passive tasting or a lecture — it was a genuinely participatory experience, the kind of seanchas-steeped afternoon where knowledge passes between hands as much as words.

Geri Martin is one of Ireland's most respected chocolatiers, and Chocolate Manor's reputation precedes her wherever fine confectionery and craft ingredients meet. On this occasion she brought that expertise into direct conversation with whiskey, guiding participants through the process of creating their own whiskey-infused chocolates from scratch. There was something quietly magical about a room full of festival-goers, drams in hand, learning to temper chocolate and consider flavour pairings that most of us had only ever experienced on the receiving end of a well-stocked box.

Four drams were poured across the session — enough to sip thoughtfully alongside the work, to consider how different whiskey characters might complement or contrast with the chocolate being shaped at each station. The combination of tasting and making gave the afternoon a dual rhythm: contemplative one moment, tactile and lively the next. Spoons were, as promised, licked thoroughly clean. The festival's whiskey map gives a sense of the breadth of distilleries and brands that featured across the week, and this session sat beautifully within that wider tapestry of flavour.

What made the event particularly memorable was its accessibility. Whiskey and chocolate are both subjects that can sometimes be approached with unnecessary reverence — a tendency that tends to put people off rather than draw them in. Geri has no time for that. Her teaching style was warm, direct, and genuinely informative, meeting participants wherever they happened to be, whether seasoned tasters or complete newcomers. By the time the session wound down at half past two, the room had the easy, satisfied atmosphere of people who had made something with their own hands and thoroughly enjoyed the process of getting there.

Events like this one are part of what makes Belfast Whiskey Week more than a drinks festival — they're an expression of duchas, of place and craft and generosity, rooted in Belfast but open to anyone who wants to pull up a stool. If you'd like to explore more of what the festival has to offer, you can browse the full Belfast Whiskey Week collection, or revisit this specific event at its original event page.