The Snacks O’ the Irish

As we celebrate everything Irish this month, it’s fun to remember that many countries and cultures have some equivalent of snacks or “junk food” just like America does. Ireland has some pretty great ones of their own (plus a few borrowed from the UK), from unique crisps (don’t call them ‘chips’ — those are what we call French fries) to everyone’s favorite chocolates.

1. Tayto/King/Keogh’s

Crisps are a big deal in Ireland, with a wide range of flavors similar to what we have in the States. The Tayto company was founded in 1954, and offers flavors like Bacon Fries and Pickled Onion, all produced beside an actual castle, Tandragee Castle (nicknamed “Tayto Castle”), in County Meath. Competitor King Crisps claim that there’s a “secret ingredient” added to every package, whether you choose Salt and Vinegar or Cheese and Onion. And Keogh’s have more unusual flavors like Roast Beef and Irish Stout (yes, that’s a crisp), Irish Cheese, and one flavor that’s very popular at the County Emmet Celtic Shop in downtown Petoskey, Mich.. “Shamrock and Sour Crème,” confirmed the shop’s owner, Ed Karmann. “With actual shamrocks right in the crisps!”

2. Caffrey’s Snowballs

Also aiming at Irish sweet teeth are Caffrey’s Snowballs, a treat especially popular during the winter holidays. Simple but often the target of the fight for “the last Snowball,” these are marshmallow globes covered in chocolate and rolled in coconut, originally developed by Thomas Andrew Caffrey, a confectioner and chocolatier thought of as Ireland’s answer to Willy Wonka.

3. Crisp Sandwich

Speaking of those crisps, we’ll start with a snack that’s going to seem pretty unusual to American palates. A “crisp sandwich” is pretty much exactly what it sounds like — two slices of thick white bread covered in butter on one side, with a package of crisps as the filling in the middle. The only difference from one crisp sandwich to the next is where your potato chip loyalties lie, which brings us to our next snack.

4. Cadbury Flake and The “99”

Found all across all of the UK and Ireland are the Cadbury’s line of chocolate offerings, and the favorite of them all is the Flake, a bar of thinly folded milk chocolate that lends the chocolate an airy texture that melts quickly. “Flakes are probably the most popular chocolate bar we sell,” Karmann added. The Flake was actually an accident — it was the result of a Cadbury’s employee noticing that excess chocolate dripping off of the production line became layered and formed flaky bars. And if you’re ever in Ireland and looking to order something local at an ice crème shop, ask for a “99,” which is a waffle cone of vanilla soft-serve ice crème with a small Flake bar stuck on top.

5. McVitie’s Digestives

When the Irish aren’t enjoying crisps, they’re eating digestives, or what we would call cookies. McVitie’s were founded in Scotland and are now made in England, but cross the Irish Sea and you’ll find they’re also one of the most popular treats in Ireland. Original digestives are sweet, flat wheat cookies that you can get plain (vanilla) or in flavors like Cheesecake Crème; chocolate digestives take these cookies up a notch by coating the vanilla variety with a layer of milk or dark chocolate, plus flavors like orange or caramel.

6. Butlers Chocolates

Butlers call themselves the “Purveyors of Happiness,” and considering how good their chocolates are, that’s an apt tagline for chocolate fans. “We have several of their chocolate bars here, including the Dark Chocolate Mint Truffle Bar, and the Irish Whiskey Chocolate Truffle Bar,” Karmann said. “People who have been to Ireland always come in to our shop and go, ‘oh my gosh, you have Butlers!’” Other Butlers best-sellers include their deluxe “ballotin presentation boxes,” with 14 to 72 different individual chocolates, like an Irish version of America’s popular Whitman’s Samplers.

7. Hula Hoops

Also imported from England are these “3D snacks” that have been popular in Ireland since the early ‘70s and are available in single and multi-packs as well as a variety of flavors. Made from potatoes but quite different than crisps, they are indeed shaped like hula hoops (if a little fatter), and people generally grab them by the color of their packaging: red for Original, pink for Sweet Chilli, Orange for Roast Chicken, and so on. Nearly a half-billion packs of Hula Hoops are consumed in the UK every year, so they must be doing something right.

8. Oatfield

With the tagline “Sweets As They Used to Be,” much of Oatfield’s line of candies are centered around toffees and caramels. We think of eclairs in the U.S. as a crème-filled pastry — but at Oatfield, their Assorted Eclairs are actually bagged toffees, with flavored centers of coconut, orange, raspberry and chocolate. “We carry the Eclairs, which are very popular, and also the Colleen assortment,” Karmann said, the latter being a delightful conglomeration of assorted Eclairs plus Irish Butter and Licorice Toffees, Orange and Pepperment Chocolates, and “Emeralds,” which are Oatfield’s signature toffees coated with chocolate.

If you can’t make it to Ireland, many of these products are available by import online, or at local import shops like Ed Karmann’s County Emmet Celtic Shop in Petoskey at countyemmetcelticshop.com or (231) 753-2027.

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