What’s Snacking in Ireland?

Snacks are a way of life. We get our three squares a day in most corners of the world, but it is almost always recommended to eat small, frequent meals about four to five times a day.

This is where snacks become essential to life. They are not meant to fill us up like a meal would, but they are usually meant to satisfy a craving or hunger that will not go away until we eat something.

Enter Ireland’s version of snack food. This is the stuff which makes life so interesting isn’t it? One would think some things like traditional snacks are universal, but as you can see from this video above, that would be an erroneous assumption. Take a look!

First, Ireland’s most popular potato chip goes by the name of Taytos. Mr. Tayto is the cute, suit-dressed potato found on the front package wearing a big grin. Outside of that fact, he was entered as a fake candidate in a Irish election in 2007. What is even more bizarre is that people actually voted for him! I think this means that people in Ireland just love their Taytos which come in a variety of flavors.

Volunteers for this exercise found the Smokey Bacon Taytos, oh, so bacon-ey. It was hard to contain their recognition of that flavor. Yes, Americans love bacon. However, would Americans rather a Tayto bag versus an American-standard chip? Dip Dabs seemed like they would make most of us pucker at the thought of having a taste. While watching the participants, it was easy to understand that sour expression on most faces. We’ve all been there and most of the time we wished we had a cool glass of water nearby.

The last item  to try was blood sausage. It really didn’t seem that Americans had anything near close to compare that experience to. The name alone sounded unappetizing, but as you can see, everyone who tried it really liked it.

Well, there you have it. Ireland does snacks and treats a little bit differently. Sometimes the food seems like something inedible with a peculiar-sounding name, but those who taste-tested found most items tolerable. Maybe they figured that despite their differences, there are some pretty good reasons why these are preferred snack choices. And maybe they figured
they are only necessary while in Ireland.