The Salt & Vinegar Crisps of Éire - Part 4: They're just hunky dory

As I noted previously, while on a flight to Dublin I was told by a genuine Kerrygold eating, Guinness drinking Irishman what the best salt & vinegar crisps of Hibernia were.

His reply to my query about the best his country had to offer was "Tayto but the crinkled ones, not the regular ones." His accent gave the response an authoritativeness that a generic Midwestern one such as mine just could not muster.

Were they truly some pukka crisps?

Although I'd encountered Tayto crisps previously, this was their Hunky Dorys line - thicker, heartier crisps to tame manly appetites - and, unlike the previous crisps where cider vinegar reigned, these were made with malt vinegar.

I don't come across many crinkle cut salt & vinegar chips here. Surely the thicker cut and those crinkles must add more surface area that can accommodate even more vinegar dust than your normal crisp/chip. If only someone could invent a slicer that would yield chips in non-Euclidian shapes. Just think of all the magical vinegar dust they could hold! Lovecraft Snacks, LLC.

These crisps had a nice yellow hue with bits of brown on the edges. They appeared to have skin on them. Thick and crinkley as advertised. Sticking my face in the packet and taking a whiff I smelled a firm vinegar tang, the rich, greasy aroma of oil, and a faint bit of potato on the sweet side.

As expected they had a nice crunch as well as a good, firm tanginess. No need to eat a dozen chips to get an acetic burn on my tongue. They also tasted a bit saltier than normal and I suppose this can be attributed to the extra surface area. As for the potato flavor itself, it was rich & creamy and on the sweet side. 

I think my guide to the crisps of Éire was correct. These were the best. I adored the big malt vinegar tang and the thicker cut gave a big, creamy burst of spud flavor.

 

Well played Tayto megacorp.

 

Hopefully I will have the opportunity to sample more Irish salt & vinegar crisps some day.

The Salt & Vinegar Crisps of Éire - Part Dhá: I go megacorp

One thing you won't see on a bag of salt & vinegar potato chips here in America is text in Irish Gaelic.

When I first got into the Dublin airport and began making my way to immigration to get my passport stamped, I saw a sign and didn't understand a word of it. Were my glasses dirty? Had my eyes suddenly gone bad? No, it was just in Irish. I was used to signs at airports in Spanish and Hmong but not Irish. 

Tayto is a much less posh sounding brand name than O'Donnells of Tipperary but my packet of salt & vinegar crisps were apparently made in a castle that long predates the founding of the United States which is pretty damn cool if you ask me. That castle is in Northern Ireland while O'Donnells are made in Ireland Ireland.

Google says that Tayto is the biggest brand over there, their Lays, I guess you could say, and I get the impression that the company is either not Irish-owned or is a subsidiary of a non-Irish company. But I don't trust AI.

How did megacorp do?

The crisps were a rather bright yellow but had many nicely browned edge bits. It seemed that the diameter of the crisps was on the small side and they were thinner than a typical American kettle chip but not as thin as your standard American chip. The surfaces were home to a fair number of bubbles. Putting my nose in the packet and taking a big sniff, I got a goodly dose of vinegar - hooray! - as well as some oil and a faint aroma of potato on the sweet side.

I found that they had a restrained crunchiness to them - less than the aforementioned American kettle chip yet more than your standard Lays chip. The aroma was a harbinger of the flavor which had a good, firm tanginess. It didn't seem extra salty to me but I did like the sweet-earthy balance of the potato taste.

These were some fine crisps. I appreciated the boost in vinegar tang and caught a flavor like barley that came with a hint of sweetness. The label did say that it may contain barley and I do not recall if I tasted barley after reading the label or before. My inclination is before based on my tasting notes. Again, rosemary extract was used as an anti-oxident. And again the oils were sunflower and rapeseed.

Large corporation or not, these were very tasty.