In March 2026, the BRIT Awards left London for the first time since 1977. They landed at Co-op Live in Manchester, and in their wake came one of the more memorable afterparty concepts the music industry has staged in recent memory. Warner Music and Hennessy took over The Cut & Craft (a former bank turned marble-clad steakhouse in the city centre) and transformed it into something that could only be described as a surreal fever dream: poodle-print carpets, a five-metre-tall poodle installation, red lasers and Groove Armada on the decks.
The theme was 24 Hour Party Poodles.
Around 200 guests moved through the venue across the night, among them BRIT Award winner Rosé and Dua Lipa, who celebrated late into the evening.
..and floating in the drinks served that night, was a Hennessy logo pressed into the ice
The stamp in the glass
The Henny-Rita: a sharp, citrus-led take on a margarita and one of the headline serves of the evening, wasn't branded on the cup or printed on a napkin. The Hennessy logo appeared inside the glass, pressed directly into clear ice using a Stamptitude Custom Ice Stamp.
That's how our ice stamps work. Pressed onto ice at room temperature and lifted cleanly away. The result is a crisp, branded impression that sits inside the drink itself. Something the person holding the glass notices before they've taken a sip.
It's a detail that photographs well. At an event attended by some of the most documented people in the industry, that matters. But the more interesting part of the story isn't what guests saw. It's what they didn't.
A venue that earns its reputation
It's worth pausing on The Cut & Craft itself, because the choice of venue wasn't incidental.
The BRITs didn't land in Manchester and pick a function room. They picked a venue that understood what a room is supposed to do. And The Cut & Craft, for all the surrealism of 24 Hour Party Poodles, was every bit as considered in its own identity as the event it was asked to host. That's the result of a team that sweats the detail.
A venue that houses marble and white-glove service doesn't accidentally serve cocktails with a logo pressed into the ice. They chose that detail for exactly the same reason they've chosen every other, because the person in the room deserves an experience that holds together from the first impression to the last.
The part of the story that matters most
Our ice stamps are made from lead-free brass, which is a specific alloy where the lead is replaced by bismuth. Standard brass, the kind used in almost every other stamp on the market, contains trace amounts of lead. For a stamp used on paper or wax, that's entirely inconsequential. Nobody is eating the envelope.
But when a stamp goes directly onto ice that goes directly into a drink, alebit a drink being served to guests at one of the most high-profile events in the British music calendar, the calculus is different. The thermal contact between brass and ice is intimate, and the decision about which brass you use is not a hypothetical one.
We made the call to use only lead-free brass many years ago before events like this were even on the horizon for us. It costs more and is a lot harder to source. In the vast majority of our customers' use cases, nobody would know the difference or suffer any consequence from the alternative.
But consider for a moment, the alternative. A venue owner looking to add a branded ice detail to their cocktail service sources the most affordable option available. The price is lower, the product looks nearly identical and the impression is comparable. What they don't know, and what most people wouldn't think to ask is that the stamp is made with leaded brass.
At a quiet private function, that risk might never surface. But at an event such as the BRITs, with a room full of guests and a headline drinks serve going out all night, the stakes are different. The reputational cost of something going wrong far outweighs the few extra dollars spent on the better material.
The Cut & Craft understands this, and that's ultimately why they chose us.
What it means to be trusted with this
For one night in Manchester, the Hennessy logo floated in glasses held by some of the most recognisable people in the industry. Nobody in that room knew what the brass was made of. But if anyone had asked, the answer was the right one.
That, more than any award or accolade, is what quality looks like in practice. Not the thing you see, but the thing you never have to worry about.
Interested in branded ice for your venue or next event?
[Explore our Custom Ice Stamps →]
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