# Irish Dopers:  What is poitín (poteen?)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 16, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298 "2002-07-16T21:53:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298/1 "2002-07-16T21:53:41Z")

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What is poitín? (Or is it “poteen”?) Is it illegal? If so, why?

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298/2 "2002-07-16T22:09:52Z")

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Its moonshine…if you don’t know what you’re doing, its toxic.

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298/3 "2002-07-16T22:25:14Z")

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Poteen is an Irish clear distilled spirit. It is traditionally produced in small batches from potatoes. Illegal for many years in Ireland, it has recently been reintroduced to the market in proofs from 80 to 180 (yow!).

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298/4 "2002-07-16T22:27:33Z")

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So it’s white lighting made from potatoes, eh?

Thanks.

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**Author:** ![micilin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8c91f0/32.png) [@micilin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micilin)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-dopers-what-is-poitin-poteen/119298/5 "2002-07-16T22:53:26Z")

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Poitín is a very very bad thing indeed. Stay away from it.

I say this as someone who found himself dancing shirtless in a nightclub with a builder from Crumlin after two (small) glasses of it. This was as my girlfriend of the time looked on, BTW.

Some context:  
[ul]  
[li]This wasn’t the first drink I ever had.[/li][li]I’m straight.[/li][li]I don’t go to nightclubs.[/li][li]I don’t dance.[/li][li]He wasn’t my type.[/li][/ul]

[Al Murray]I was never confused![/Al Murray]