Taste Testing Irish Snacks For the Very First Time!

You all know I love a good taste test. Especially an international one. And what better way to start out a new month than with a new international taste test? And how about one from none other than the Emerald Isle aka Ireland, home of B*Witched, Guinness, and Saorsie Ronan? And the homeland of Conan O’Brien, who I personally love and think is the best late night host ever (don’t at me, because I will win. Team Coco forever!).

Now, I’ve already done a SnackCrate taste test before of British snacks and candy, but that was a one off box from their store. SnackCrate (totally not an ad!) offers you a one time trial size box for a $1 (which I paid for myself, thank you very much!), in hopes that you will buy a full subscription to their snacks. And if I had the money, I totally would! (Want to sponsor me, SnackCrate??) Because I was so impressed by their packaging and selection! Plus, it even comes with a card describing the country of the box, plus fun facts about said country, and it includes descriptions of the items! (Probably very helpful if the country’s native language is not English, which is probably 98% of all other countries in the world. We English speaking people really take everything for granted.)

I honestly had so much fun taste testing this box, plus they included more snacks than the original five they said they would (thanks, SnackCrate!), and the box came with fun Irish themed stickers (which I’m totally giving to my niece for St. Patrick’s Day), plus the contents of the box were wrapped with the cutest Irish themed paper, sealed with a circular Irish flag sticker. I’m a sucker for good packaging and SnackCrate nailed it. Plus, SnackCrate sent me TWO brands of cheddar and onion crisps, so I think we may have a crisp taste test battle on our hands!

Let’s get tasting!

Taytos Cheddar and Onion Crisps

What Is It/What’s In It? Crunchy Irish potato chips (or crisps, if you want to be totally Irish) flavored with vintage Irish cheddar and onion.
How Does It Taste? Delicious! I’ve had cheese and onion chips/crisps in my British snack taste test (again, by SnackCrate. Wanna collab, guys?), but I’ve had previously heard of Tayto, a very Irish crisp brand from Conan O’Brien, on his show. He visited an Irish American Cultural Center in Chicago and was teasing the people who ran it on how many packs of Taytos they had stocked there. So for a while, my sister and I would just randomly say, “Taytooooo!” to each other in a fake Irish accent, mimicking Conan. (I really love Conan, you guys)
Would I Eat It Again? Yes, please, thank you. I personally like rippled chips better, but the taste and cut of these chips were perfectly crunchy and lovely, so 10/10 would eat again. Why don’t they sell these here in grocery stores in the States??

StarBar

What Is It/What’s In It? A milk chocolate candy bar with caramel and crushed roasted peanuts.
How Does It Taste? Pretty good! I was a little thrown off by the crushed peanuts because they almost mimicked the texture of rice crispies, which made me check the ingredient list to see if there were any in there! But the caramel was nice and stretchy and there was LOTS of it!
Would I Eat It Again? I enjoyed it, but it didn’t knock my socks off. I personally like whole peanuts for the texture better, so maybe if they had peanut halves instead of crushed peanuts, I probably would eat it again. But I’m a picky American who loves my peanuts, so what can I do?

Snack! Shortcake Bar

What Is It/What’s In It? A Cadbury (so you know it’s gonna be good) bar with buttery shortbread squares covered in chocolate.
How Does It Taste? Um, so freaking amazing! It tasted really similar to Keebler’s Fudge Stripes cookies or those Girl Scout cookies that were shortbread that had the bottom of the cookie covered in chocolate (those existed, right? I’m not just making them up?). But I don’t know if it was the shortbread or the silky chocolate but they almost reminded me a tad bit of Maltesers. I have no idea why, because they didn’t taste malty, but I couldn’t help but think of them as I ate them.
Would I Eat It Again? Yes! These were a total winner! Shortbread and chocolate? You can’t go wrong!

Snack! Sandwich Bar

What Is It?/What’s In It? The same ingredients as the Snack! Bar, but a sandwich version! Two shortbread biscuits/cookies with sandwiches together with chocolate, and then covered in chocolate. *drools*
How Does It Taste? Just like the regular Snack! bar version, but a bit more hearty, since the biscuits/cookies were thicker plus there was more chocolate.
Would I Eat It Again? Um, heck yes! I don’t know which Snack! version I liked more, but I would happily eat them both again, with no hesitation whatsoever.

Oatfield Glucose Barley Hard Candy

What Is it?/What’s In It? A hard candy flavored like Glucose Barley. My options were either of getting Chocolate Orange or Glucose Barley. They gave me Glucose Barley. So basically it's a sweet wheat treat. You guys, I’m scared.
How Does It Taste? You know, it wasn’t too bad! It honestly just tasted like a lemon cough drop without the menthol, or just a lemon flavored candy with barely any lemon in it. So not as scary as I was expecting, but not at all flavorful (which is maybe a good thing…?)
Would I Eat It Again? Most likely not. Sorry, Glucose Barley!

Elite Kimberley

What Is It?/What’s In It? Sweet cookies topped with marshmallows and dipped in milk chocolate.
How Does It Taste? You know, this sounded really, really good, like American Moon Pies, but once I tasted it, something tasted a bit odd to me. It wasn’t the chocolate or the marshmallow, but it was more like the cookies themselves. Like something it was flavored with something a little heavier than just a simple cookie. I had to Google the cookie itself and discover the cookies are flavored with ginger! Huh.
Would I Eat It Again? Honestly, probably not. The heaviness and almost mealiness of the ginger cookies (which really doesn’t taste like ginger to me) isn’t very appealing to me. But I love the idea of these and just wish I liked them more!

ChewIts Xtreme Sour Apple Chews

What Is It?/What’s In It? Sweet chews that are tart but end up sweet at the end. I had the option of either getting Sour Apple or Tutti Frutti, and they gave me Sour Apple. Thank god.
How Does It Taste? It tasted like my childhood! I used to love sour apple flavored things, so eating one of these was like revisiting my youth. The pieces were individually wrapped (for some reason I just thought it would be one long piece of chewy candy, like a huge Laffy Taffy), and was really tasty! Not too sour, with just enough sweet. Plus, on the package it says it's suitable for vegetarians, which is something you don't often see on candies in the States.
Would I Eat It Again? As much as I enjoyed this nostalgia trip, I’m more of a chocolate fan now if I’m going to eat sweets. Though I do love the little alligator/crocodile (or is a dinosaur?) mascot they’ve got going on. We need more branding like that in the world!

Hunky Dorys Cheddar and Spring Onion

What Is It?/What’s In It? Ripple-cut crisps flavored with cheddar cheese and spring onion.
How Does It Taste? Yummy! I love me some ripple-cut chips, and these tasted really good. Like Ruffles but with a much better cheese and onion flavor (possibly even better than cheese and sour cream? Don’t tell anyone I said that!)
Would I Eat It Again? Ooh yes! These should be a requirement in the chip bowl at any party in Ireland. (Do Irish people have chip bowls at parties? I thought that was just a thing everyone did!)

But which crisps/chips win in this ultimate battle? Tayto or Hunky Dorys? In my opinion, it has to be... Tayto! As much as I love ripple-cut chips, I loved the aged cheddar flavor of Tayto more, plus the kettle style of the chips gave them a great crunch. The Hunky Dorys ones seemed to have a more powdery flavoring covering them, which made them taste more artificial (but still tasty!). Tayto is the clear winner for me!

And that was my taste test of Irish snacks! I’d say this SnackCrate sample box was really varied and had some great tasting (and not so great tasting) snacks and candy in it! I wish I was able to buy more of these sample sizes, but I understand why they want you to try one and then get a full subscription (they wouldn’t be making very much money if everyone was just buying $1 boxes!). But SnackCrate, again, if you’d like to send me a full box to review I’d love to try it and post about it! *wink wink* *nudge nudge* *mouths “Email me”*

And if you love reading about my taste tests, feel free to check out my Ko-fi page, where you can donate a cup of coffee so I can keep making more posts like this! (No pressure though! You have no idea  how much people just reading and commenting on my blog means to me! But just in case you were wondering, I do have a current goal I’m trying to reach on my Ko-fi page which I'm trying to reach, if you're at all interested!)

I hope you enjoyed this very Irish themed taste testing post! What did you think of the snacks and candy and the variety of them? If you’re Irish, do you eat any of these treats? Also, what kind of international snacks should I try next? I have still yet to try Irn-Bru and it intrigues me! Let me know what you think in the comments!

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