A second product for a one-brand company.

Sheridan’s is an Irish liqueur sold in a bottle of two halves: one side holds a dark coffee liqueur, the other a pale cream liqueur, and the two are poured at the same time, The Spirits Business reported in 2026. Sources differ on when it arrived. English Wikipedia says it was first introduced in 1994; Difford’s Guide, the drinks reference, says it was launched in 1993.

It grew out of Baileys. English Wikipedia says the idea was conceived in the 1980s by Pat Rigney, then director of research and development at Bailey’s company, as a way to give a business built on a single brand a second product. A 2018 profile published by the Irish stockbroker Davy credits Rigney with conceiving the twin-bottle Sheridan’s while he was at Baileys, after earlier marketing roles at Bulmers, Gilbey’s Gin and Carolan’s Irish Cream. The same profile says he went on to found The Shed Distillery at Drumshanbo, County Leitrim, in 2014, the home of Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin.

The maker’s name is given in different ways. English Wikipedia says the liqueur is produced in Dublin by Thomas Sheridan & Sons. Difford’s Guide, in a 2024 version of its page, lists the producer as R & A Bailey & Co., the Baileys company, and the owner as Diageo. When the brand changed hands in 2025, the Portuguese business site ECO still described Sheridan’s as a double-chamber liqueur produced in Dublin.

Difford’s Guide also gives a story for the name: it says Sheridan’s is named after Joe Sheridan, the chef turned bartender credited with creating the Irish Coffee at Foynes, on the Shannon estuary, for passengers arriving by Pan Am flying boat.

A bottle no Irish glassworks could make.

The bottle is the brand. English Wikipedia describes it as two separate sections, divided by glass but fused together, so that each half holds its own liquid. It says the original bottles were made in Italy, because the company could not find an Irish firm able to make them, and that they are now made in France and England; it cites a business case study, Cases in Irish Business Strategy and Policy, for the product’s early history.

Accounts of what is inside vary in their wording. English Wikipedia describes a black liqueur flavoured with coffee and whiskey on one side and a white vanilla cream liqueur on the other. Difford’s Guide describes a dark chocolate and coffee liqueur beside a white vanilla and cream spirit. The Spirits Business, reporting in April 2026, described a whiskey-infused coffee liqueur and a white chocolate cream. Wikipedia and Difford’s Guide both give the strength as 15.5% alcohol by volume.

The serve is part of the idea. Difford’s Guide says an “ultimate pour” mechanism lets the drinker pour and layer the two liquids in a recommended two-to-one proportion, with the vanilla cream floating on top, so that the glass resembles an Irish coffee; it recommends serving it chilled, neat over ice. It also notes a Latin inscription on the label, “Unitate fortior,” which it translates as “strength through union.”

Diageo, in its September 2025 announcement, called Sheridan’s a “long-established, two-part coffee-cream liqueur” available in more than 50 countries and widely distributed across Europe. The Spirits Business added in 2026 that it has a strong presence in global travel retail.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all liqueurs and spirits: Drambuie, Frangelico, Malibu, Southern Comfort, Tia Maria, Pimm’s and Sheridan’s. Liqueur and spirit brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from family firms that still carry a founder’s name to names that now belong to much larger drinks groups, and a single brand can be sold everywhere from a corner shop to an airport duty-free shelf.

A liqueur or spirit brand’s identity is usually carried less by a single recipe than by a bottle, a name and the drink or serve it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, moved its production or grown far beyond the place where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its drinks are actually made and bottled.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its owners over time, where its drinks are made and how its packaging has changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

From Diageo to Lousã.

Before 2025, Sheridan’s sat beside Baileys in the Diageo portfolio. On 8 September 2025 Diageo announced that it had agreed to sell the brand to Casa Redondo, a Portuguese drinks company, for an undisclosed sum. Dayalan Nayager, Diageo’s president for Europe and chief commercial officer, called it “another example of our sharp focus on effective portfolio management and maximising shareholder value”; the company listed it after earlier European sales of Pampero, Cacique and Safari, and said a transitional services agreement would keep the business running after completion. Food Manufacture reported that the sale was completed on 30 January 2026.

The buyer is a family business. Diageo described Casa Redondo as a third-generation company started in 1940 by José Carranca Redondo; ECO places it in Lousã, in central Portugal, and traces its roots to the creation of Licor Beirão in 1929. Diageo calls Licor Beirão the best-selling spirit brand in Portugal; the group also sells Amarguinha, FoxTale Gin and the Per Se aperitif, and bought Diageo’s Safari liqueur in July 2024, Just Drinks reported. Its chief executive, Daniel Redondo, called Sheridan’s “a unique brand with strong consumer recognition and an enduring identity.” He told ECO that, with Sheridan’s, the group expected exports to overtake sales at home for the first time; that is the company’s expectation. In April 2026 The Spirits Business reported that Alcobrands had been appointed its exclusive distributor in Belgium and Luxembourg.

For a design guide, Sheridan’s shows how a single piece of packaging can carry a whole brand: the bottle is the product, the serve and the story at once. Compare Tia Maria, another coffee liqueur, and Frangelico, another liqueur sold on the shape of its bottle. For this guide we use coffee black, cream and a label gold with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Sheridan’s’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.