Great Irish foods: Six artisan food brands to try this Christmas
Chocolatiers Christmas Bon Collection
To be crowned ‘Best Irish Cream Liqueur’ is quite something — yet the four 2024 Irish Whiskey Awards gold medals awarded to the Cooney family’s Boann Distillery in Drogheda, included that very title (overall category win) for their Whistler Irish Cream Liqueur.
But, with the highest cream and whiskey content of any Irish cream liqueur on the market, perhaps its success should be no surprise.
Within its cute packaging — a clip-top ‘milk churn’ bottle — Five Farms Irish Cream Liqueur lays claim to be the world’s first farm-to-table Irish cream liqueur, combining single batch cream from five Co Cork farms, and Irish whiskey from the county.
Highly rated and widely available.
James Whelan Beef Dripping took the food world by storm when it beat 10,000 competing products to be awarded Supreme Champion at the Great Taste Awards in 2015 — an astonishing achievement for a very traditional and humble ingredient.
But it’s the quality of basic ingredients that really counts to get the best flavour and texture from your cooking, including roast potatoes for the Christmas table, which premium beef dripping can transform into a special experience.
Fancy some game over the festive season — pheasant or wild Irish venison from Tipperary perhaps?
Try Ranelagh specialist The Village Butcher or SuperValu stores.
What is it with Ireland and premium chocolate production?
Whatever the answer, it’s amazing and we have superb new brands arriving all the time.
Take chefs Georgia Quealy and Daniel Linehan, who started their small business Bon Chocolatiers during the pandemic.
Current offerings include a gorgeous ‘Festive Treats’ box and their large filled ‘Rockin’ Robin’.
After online orders close, their chocolates are available from Daniel’s family’s café Beans & Leaves in Athlone, and some lines are also sold at Dublin’s Fallon & Byrne.
Bean to bar craft chocolate makers NearyNógs offers small batch chocolates, events and tours on the scenic Mourne Coast.
Also available from specialist outlets nationwide, including English Market favourite The Chocolate Shop in Cork.
Ireland’s love affair with chocolate is extraordinary, but For many people Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without some Hadji Bey’s Turkish Delight.
Its story as an Irish treat dates back to 1902 when a young Armenian confectioner made his mark at the Great Cork International Exhibition — and the rest is history.
Available in Original Rose and Rahat Lokoum (rose, orange and lemon flavours) with newer varieties (and Madagascar Vanilla Fudge) added later, the iconic boxes include an article on Hadji Bey’s Turkish Delight first published in The Guardian in 1964, and the little gift bags also make cute stocking fillers.
Look out for the nostalgic Nic & Ali’s range, made in Dublin and available from specialist outlets including BT and Avoca.
Just as chefs advise investment in good knives, they will recommend seeking out the best seasonings — and what could be better than pure Atlantic Ocean sea salt?
Although we’re lucky to have some excellent brands to choose from, Michael and Aileen O’Neill’s Irish Atlantic Sea Salt from the Beara Peninsula was the first natural sea salt to be commercially produced in Ireland (2009) and its purity and high salinity remain unique.
As well as the original, there’s a newer flavoured range including: Oak Smoked, Chilli & Paprika, Lemon & Pepper, Aromatic Garlic and Aran Dillisk (seaweed from the Aran Islands).
Cider vinegar with living culture — unpasteurised cider vinegar from the Traas family’s Tipperary gem The Apple Farm. Simply superb.
Today, at Drumshanbo’s old Methodist Church (now reimagined for the community), PJ Rigney’s The Shed Distillery celebrates a decade in business — exactly 10 years since Connacht’s first distillation in over a century took place.
If only every town in Ireland had a visionary entrepreneur like PJ Rigney, our rural landscape could be transformed — hence our naming The Shed (and its Jackalope Café) as GCGuides Visitor Attraction of the Year 2024.
And their drinks are outstanding too of course.
The Bushmills Miniature Gift Pack has three mini Irish whiskeys from the world’s oldest licensed distillery (1608), including Black Bush.