Baileys Irish Cream was the first Irish Cream Liqueur on the market. The initial thought for Baileys took about 30 seconds, 45 minutes later the idea was formed. IDV, International Distillers and Vintners sent a brief to David Gluckman and Hugh Reade Seymour-Davies from their Irish Company asking them to create some kind of new drink brand for exports. The brief did not specify what the drink should be, just alcoholic. Gluckman and Seymour-Davies had only been in business together for two months opening their own Advertising Agency. David Gluckman had previous success working on the Kerrygold Irish Butter Campaign and Hugh Reade Seymour-Davies was Oxford trained. Gluckman's experience with Kerrygold is how they came up with the idea for Baileys. They thought, "Dairy, alcohol, rain trodden pastures, and contented cows" and from there went to "What would happen if we mixed Irish Whiskey and Cream?" They decided it sounded interesting, so they left their office and went to the shop down the street and bought a bottle of Jameson Irish Whiskey and a Tub of Cream. Back in their office, they mixed the two together and it was awful. Undaunted, they added sugar which made it better, but still it was missing something so they added Cadbury's Powdered Drinking Chocolate. They were pleasantly surprised. They poured their new creation into a cleaned Schweepes' Tonic Bottle, called Tom Jago, their client at IDV and met right away for him to taste. He liked it immediately, from there it went to Mac Macpherson, of Gilbey's Research Division. It was Macpherson who perfected the recipe from the original prototype.
Baileys tastes sweet and milky, with hints of vanilla and chocolate, with the fruitiness of Irish Whiskey on the finish. We recommend you enjoy it Neat, over a Gentleman's Cube, or added to your Cappuccino.