Rarely can there be a group as worthy of support as this (The Tayto appreciation society on Facebook) - I had to join as in an increasingly transient world the continuity and happiness provided by Tayto is important!
My life and Tayto have crossed on two occasions, both in a previous life as a VAT inpector in Dublin.
In the early 80's I'd to call on a chipper called "CeeBees" in Parnell Street in Dublin - This was a strange operation as it only opened Monday to Friday from 12 to 2 and from 4 to 7, not the normal trading hours for a central Dublin chippie! It turned out it was owned by the Collins Brothers (CeeBees, geddit?) who had founded King Crisps and having sold it to Tayto for, then. good money, found themselves bored with time on their hands and ran this dilettante chipper just to have something to do. They were two gentlemanly old guys (well late 50's) who told me the story of how they started King Crisps in Inchicore using a chip shop range to do the frying. Here I was in the presence of crisp royalty, the guys who had started doing individual batch fried handmade crisps! Tayto never did much with the King Crisp brand afterwards and when you see the huge success brands such as Kettles (and Tyrells) have made of the same idea it seems to have been a marketing opportunity lost.
Incidentally afterwards I visited the state of the art Tayto plant in Coolock and noticed that their purchases include parsnips. It turned out for 3 months in late winter / early spring potatoes were in short supply and not of good quality so they substituted parsnips instead. I was incredulous and said surely customers noticed? As Tayto had invented the method of flavouring crisps he said there was no real difference in taste and no, they had never received any customer comment! Considering what an upmarket premium product root vegetable crisps are today I was surprised he told me the second advantage of using parsnip crisps is they were cheaper!
Whilst reviewing the momentous history of crisps it should be remembered that when Mrs. Smith made her crisps in the 1920’s in her garage in North London they were mainly sold from a handcart by her husband Frank Smith (as in Smith’s Crisps) to an Irish Clientele in the pubs on Kilburn High Road.
The Irish and Crisps – they go together like Ham and Cheese, Jordan and Pete, Bread and Buttie, St Kevin and Women, ………………………………….
Mr Tayto
Tayto was born in 1954, when Joe ‘Spud’ Murphy invented the first cheese and onion flavour crisp! In those days, Tayto would sell 347 packets per day. Nowadays, Ireland’s favourite crisps sell around three-quarters of a million bags per day. The factory now operates out of Tandragee Castle, where it is possible to take tours. Who wouldn’t want to see crisps being made IN A CASTLE? Plus, there’s a chance you might even get to meet Mr. Tayto himself. Wowzers!
Tours run from Monday to Thursday at 10.30am and 1.30pm, and on Friday at 10.30am. The Tayto Factory is closed on public holidays, such as Christmas, Easter, Bank Holidays etc. The price for adults is £5, students and seniors is £4, and the price for children is £3. The tours are regrettably not suitable for children under 5.
www.tayto.com
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