There's a new crisp in town!

Do you know who cooked the crisps in your packet? What type of potato are they made of (hmm, come to that, how many types of potatoes could you actually name?!). Any idea where those potatoes were grown? These questions did not even occur to me until the lovely people at Keogh's sent us some of their Gluten-free hand cooked crisps.

Let me tell you- these crisps are a revelation! Great flavours, great texture, gluten-free and 100% Irish (and lets face it, you can't go wrong with something Irish!).  My husband is not a lover of gluten-free fare. He usually turns his nose up as soon as he sees 'Gluten-Free' on the packet and is reluctant to try anything that might be suitable for Coeliacs (often including my baking, fnhh fnhh fnhh!). However, when I asked him about his thoughts on Keogh's crisps he said (and I quote)  'Yeah, they were nice, they were good quality, better than Tayto anyway. They're at least as good as Kettle chips with better flavours'. The GF flavours include Irish Atlantic Sea Salt, Shamrock and Sour Cream, Atlantic Sea Salt & Irish Cider Vinegar and Sweet Chilli & Irish Red Pepper. Unfortunately they don't do a gluten free cheese and onion flavour, so I must disagree with hubby's comparison to Tayto, but I have to say they are by far and away the best gluten-free crisps I have ever tasted and blow all other non-GF competitors out of the water too. Top marks!

A word of warning if you have a child as inquisitive as mine- be prepared to be bombarded with questions about anyone who ever worked for Keogh's.  I made the mistake of telling Alexandra that the back of the packet tells you who cooked the crisps, along with where the potatoes were picked and what type of potatoes they're made from. I subsequently  had to explain that they don't tell you anything about what colour hair Marika or Dean have, what their favourite Disney princesses are or what toys they like- how remiss!

In any case, thank you to Keogh's for introducing us to their fab gluten-free product. My mum will be delighted that they are being introduced to Tesco in the UK, so she won't have to lug them over to us in her suitcase too!

Jen

PS I promise not to post about crisps again for the foreseeable future!!

An open letter to Mr Tayto!

Dear Mr Tayto,

I have always loved your crisps. They are as much a part of childhood in Ireland as playing keepy upies and watching Bosco. 

Now that I live in England I don't have the same easy access to Taytos, but my mum uses all of her (not very large) Ryanair cabin baggage allowance to bring me a supply whenever she comes.  She has to leave her toiletry bag in my house so she has room for all the crisps, that's how much I love them (and I'm not joking about the toiletry bag!)
All other cheese and onion crisps are pale imitations of your original and best flavour- they are bland, bland, bland in comparison. (Ok, King crisps come a close-ish second, but you can't get them over here either, as you know because you make them too. Gold and silver in the best cheese and onion crisp category- well done!)

Tayto go with almost every other food type, and I can see where you were going with the crisp flavoured chocolate,but that didn't quite hit the mark and was a step too far. However, I digress, that's not what I'm writing to you about!

When we were home in Ireland for a holiday in July I was very excited to have the opportunity to visit Tayto Land. What an idea-combining fun and flavour- what more could you want?! I packed up my 2 kids and hubby and off we went with a picnic for a day out- oh the excitement! Well, excitement for me anyway. My husband (a Brit) was reared on Walkers and doesn't appreciate the true wonder of the Tayto flavour. My daughters are familiar with 'mummy's special crisps' but had not fully understood the legend that is Mr Tayto.  

Things changed that day in July.  My older daughter chased Mr Tayto all over the park trying to get a photo and making him wave (the poor old guy must have been close to having a heart attack in that suit on the hottest day of the year so far). My  22 month old can't quite talk, but she now points maniacally and mutters 'Tay-yo,Tay-yo' whenever she sees anyone in a red suit (God knows how we're going to explain that to Santa at Christmas time!) 

Both the girls wanted a Tayto souvenir- Alexandra, the 4 year old, got the teddy and Katya got the plastic money box (probably a good job Katya chose the more robust Mr Tayto as he has been dumped in the bath and paddling pool on a number of occasions since- perhaps mistaken for a duck in a suit rather than a crisp in a suit in the eyes of an almost two year old? Alex's plush Mr Tayto on the other hand has become Mrs Tayto and married the plastic fellow, despite the paddling pool gunk and soap scum that is starting to build on him!)


But I digress again! We had a great day at the park and your marketing department did an impressive job on the impressionable minds of my young daughters. The disappointment came when your lovely staff member sitting in the big Tayto lorry handed us each a bumper bag of Taytos to take home at the end of the day.  Alex was dying to try her Taytos, but I had to grab the bag off her and explain that Taytos contain gluten. Alex is a coeliac so gets very sick if she eats any wheat or gluten containing products. I couldn't explain to her why there was gluten in the crisps, when there isn't in cheese, onion, potatoes or sunflower oil but how and ever, she couldn't eat them. There are approximately 45,000 people with Coeliac disease in Ireland currently. If you made gluten-free Taytos and if each one of those people with Coeliacs bought a bag of Taytos just once that would make you over £20,000 gross. If you did a better job on gluten-free crisps than you did on the chocolate, then I bet all the Coeliacs would buy a lot more than one bag, meaning mega-bucks. If you made Taytos that didn't contain gluten, my mum would probably pay to put a big bag in the hold on Ryanair  to carry them over to England,so you could ask Ryanair for a share or two for the increase in their business too!

Please, please, please consider making gluten free Taytos so that I can introduce my daughter to your unique and fantastic flavour and all of my Coeliac friends can escape crisp blandness!

With thanks for your consideration,

Jen