Baileys is the world’s first and best-selling cream liqueur, invented in Dublin in 1973 by a team of professionals hired for the job. The liqueur is a blend of two of Ireland’s most delicious ingredients – rich dairy cream and whisky.
Baileys is one of the Ireland’s most successful exports and is owned by Diageo Group since 2007.
It is no exaggeration to say that today Baileys is one of the most popular and best-selling liqueurs in the world. The classic and rich taste of the drink, the dark elegant bottle, and the traditional style label – everything speaks of a brand with a rich and long history. However, Baileys is a rather young brand.
It all started in 1971, when Tom Jago, a technologist at Gilbeys of Ireland distillery, founded in 1857 by Walter Gilbey as a gin distillery, was asked to come up with a recipe that could get the company out of its financial crisis.
A company of enthusiastic innovators, led by Tom Jago, did not immediately start with a large production run. The first successful recipe was created in the kitchen with a mixer. The main difficulty was that cream, as one of the main ingredients, spoils quickly, so they had to figure out how to keep the drink for a long time and also not delaminate over time.
So, Baileys, as we know it today, was born only in 1974, and at the end of the first year 72 thousand bottles were sold, and today this figure is more than 80 million. To produce the liqueur, R. A. Bailey & Co. uses about 200 million kilograms of milk a year, which also equals almost 50% of all cream produced in Ireland.
The exact production technology and composition of Baileys are still kept a closely guarded secret. It is only known that the liqueur contains cream, triple-distilled whiskey, and high-quality spirits.
The Baileys logo is sometimes called “eyebrow” because of its arched shape. The dark orange arc in a gold frame is a background to the wordmark, which is executed in white and light gold.
One more detail of the logo is an elegant double B monogram. The two Bs look in different directions and are intertwined in their centers.
The Baileys logo design conveys the brand’s heritage and captures the warm sensuality and authenticity of the product, staying at the same time contemporary, stylish and sophisticated.