Sustainable snacking

ROOTS OF SUCCESS

2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Keogh’s launching a line of artisanal crisps from its 200-year-old farm in the Irish countryside, north of Dublin. In doing so, the Keogh family – who have run that property for three generations – became the first company to produce and market both potatoes and crisps under the same brand, as well as being the first to make one from the other in a carbon-neutral manner. They’re such a homely bunch that they even gave names (Eimear, Lyndsey, and Patty) to the three kettle fryers used in the process, and the range includes some spectacularly good crisps with rich, natural and gluten-free flavours like Irish Cheese or Shamrock and Sour Cream, the latter using actual clover grown in County Kerry. Keogh’s popcorn is phenomenal too, splicing sweet and savoury variants like honey and sea salt.

SUCH SWEET BOYS

Broderick’s began as a business with brothers Barry and Bernard baking biscuits in their mother’s oven. They certainly seem to enjoy jokes, rhymes, and alliteration, hence the somewhat flippant names they give their locally sourced and rigorously handmade bars and cakes, including the gluten-free Road Rocking Choc Choc Block (with Belgian chocolate and marshmallow) and the Tiff Toff in the Tuffen (a chocolate biscuit cake also sold in pouches of bite-sized chunks). After more than a decade in the trade, the brand’s signature cartoonish packaging is recognised all over Ireland and beyond as a mark of quality in itself.

SPILL THE BEANS

Father and son Peter and Richard Cullen founded Jelly Bean Factory in Dublin in 1998. Where candy companies often make cheap and even cynical use of refined sugar and artificial colourings etc., the Cullens went the other way to produce superior jelly beans: 100% vegetarian, gluten- and allergen-free, with plant-based colours and a broad, creative range of gourmet flavours, from Banana Split, French Vanilla, and Caramel Popcorn to Pomegranate and Strawberry Smoothie. Acquired by Cloetta in 2014 and manufactured at its state-of-the-art Dublin plant, they’re still made with the same sustainable production methods that fit the Cullens’ vision for all-natural sweets.

MOOVE ASIDE

Siobhan Lawless started home baking more than 20 years ago just to bring some extra money into the family farm. She was new to it, but it was also in her blood – her grandmother had run one of the biggest bakeries in the Galway region a century before. She also proved so good at it that the cows were soon sold to make room for a booming new business in the former milking parlour. The name of the business, The Foods of Athenry, is a play on the title of a famous folk song, and the brand has since won more than 60 awards for its health-concious line of baked confections, including all-butter mini-bites and bite-sized brownie biscuits. Because of childhood illnesses among the family, the Lawlesses put special focus on producing coeliac-friendly, gluten-free, and even dairy-free options.

TRADITIONAL YET RENEWABLE

Butler’s is one of the great Irish success stories of the last century, a confectionery empire founded by the illustrious Marion Butler in 1932, expanding from Dublin’s Lad Lane to a worldwide chain of elegant branded cafés and a globally renowned line of chocolates, toffees, and soft fudge. The original range of boxed assortments now extends to single-serving favourites like the salted caramel and mixed berry chocolate bars, while the company’s latter-day dedication to sustainability has been remarkable – many of its biggest-selling items are now packaged with recycled and reusable materials, including some elements moulded from reconstituted plastic bottles.

SNACKING ON SUPERFOODS

Another, unrelated, Butler family is responsible for the booming Good4U brand, based across the country in Sligo, on the Wild Atlantic Way. Around the turn of the millennium, studies by the University of Ulster and others were bearing out the health-giving properties of sprouting seeds, and the Butlers seized on these superfoods as the future of nutritious snacking. In business since 2004, they’ve won multiple awards in Ireland and France for a range of savoury seed and pulse-based treats that include vanilla and orange crisp protein balls.

OATS SO GOOD

Irish gastronomy begins with rustic farmhouse fare, and every family seems to recall an ancient granny who cooked huge pots of porridge to be left on the stove and reheated for weeks. Flahavan’s have lately reclaimed the oat-based breakfast as a thoroughly modern option without losing the warming, nourishing and rib-sticking qualities of old. The family mill has stood for over 200 years between the River Mahon and the Comeragh Mountains, where a wind turbine and solar panels now give the traditional water wheel an extra boost of clean, sustainable energy in producing their line of porridge flakes, flapjacks, fruity granola and super-handy microwaveable Quick Oats (original, or golden syrup).