Daisies Chocolate & Whiskey Pairing | Belfast Whiskey Week 2024

Some festival sessions announce themselves with a dram and a handshake. Session 45 of Belfast Whiskey Week 2024 announced itself with the scent of melted chocolate drifting through the door of Daisies, one of the city centre's most charming wee spots. Pairing whiskeys from Dunville's, OutWalker, Bushmills, and Titanic Distillers with speciality chocolates, this was the Taste the Festival series at its most indulgent — a kind of grown-up, gloriously boozy late afternoon tea that nobody wanted to end.

About This Event

Session 3 of Taste the Festival is hosted by Daisies, an absolute Gem of a place. Chocolate, Hot Chocolates, more Chocolates, ahhhhhh so much goodness. We are adding whiskey to the equation with speciality chocolates and drams from Dunville's, OutWalker, Bushmills and Titanic. This will be a cracking session with a kind of boozy late afternoon tea vibe....

Looking Back

Daisies is the sort of place that makes you slow down. Tucked into Belfast city centre with a menu built around local ingredients and a genuine warmth of welcome, it proved the perfect setting for Session 3 of the Taste the Festival strand — a series dedicated to the idea that whiskey belongs at the table, not just beside it. On a July afternoon in 2024, that philosophy found one of its most delicious expressions yet.

The format was unhurried and sociable, with a kind of boozy late afternoon tea vibe that the event description promised and the room happily delivered. Speciality chocolates arrived in sequence alongside drams from four producers, each pairing inviting conversation rather than closing it down. Dunville's brought its characteristic Belfast swagger — bold, malt-forward, unapologetically local. OutWalker, one of the newer independent voices on the Irish whiskey scene, added a note of curiosity and craft. Bushmills, whose deep roots in the north of Ireland have been explored across a rich programme of history masterclasses and Causeway Collection deep dives at previous festivals, brought the kind of assured, honeyed character that pairs beautifully with dark chocolate.

Titanic Distillers, Belfast's first working whiskey distillery in almost ninety years, sat right at home in this company. Based at Thompson Dock in the Titanic Quarter, the distillery carries a weight of place — of tír and duchas — that goes well beyond the famous name on the label. Their presence at Session 45 was a reminder that Belfast whiskey is not simply a revival story; it is a living, maturing thing, and it tastes all the better for the patience it has taken to arrive. The chocolate pairings gave the spirit room to open up, drawing out fruit and grain notes that might have passed unnoticed in a more conventional tasting.

At £35 a head, this was one of the festival's most accessible and genuinely joyful sessions. There was laughter, there were second helpings of chocolate, and there was that particular ease that settles over a room when good uisce beatha meets good company. The team at Daisies matched every dram with something thoughtful and delicious, and the combined effect was less a whiskey event with food and more a shared table that happened to include some exceptional spirits. Sláinte to that.

The Brand: Titanic Distillers

Belfast's first working whiskey distillery in almost 90 years, at Thompson Dock in the Titanic Quarter.

The Venue

Daisies — Restaurant. Belfast City Centre

Charming restaurant with a focus on local ingredients and Irish whiskey experiences.

More from Belfast Whiskey Week

• Session 83: Bushmills History (MasterClass)
• Session 1: Bushmills New Cask Finish Range (Introduction)
• Session 2: Bushmills Core Malts (Introduction)
• Session 22: Sexton Deconstruction (Showcase)
• Session 23: Bushmills Cask strength (Mini-MasterClass)
• Session 50: Bushmills Causeway Collection (MasterClass)

Explore the full programme on the Belfast Whiskey Week Whiskey Map.