17 Facts That Prove That Tayto Are The Best Crisps In The World

We love brands that come out of Ireland which is why we’ve shared amazing facts about Ryanair and Penneys in the past and today is the turn of the tastiest crisp brand in the world… Tayto. The branding might have changed slightly over the years and we are sure that the packets keep getting smaller but ask anybody what they miss when they are away from home and the answer will nearly always include Tayto crisps. Here are 17 of the things that make Tayto the best crisp brand in the world:

1. Started in 1954 with just £500 of capital

Joe Spud Murphy began what is today’s largest snackfood company with just two rented rooms off Moore Street, Dublin. All they had was 8 staff and a van.

2. The brand is different In Northern Ireland

The two companies are entirely separate and have different branding but the Northern Irish company licensed the name and recipes from the southern company back in the 50s.

3. Tayto Park is a real place

What other crisp brand would be cool enough to have an entire theme park dedicated to such a brilliant theme? The park is like heaven on earth for kids including zip lines, fun rides and of course the ability to visit the factory where the crisps are made.

4. Mr Tayto even has his own wild animals

The theme park even has it’s own zoo which keeps everything from wombats to tigers. Children can meet the animals at special sessions and there is a focus on conservation and education.

5. They are building Europe’s Largest Wooden Roller-coaster

It will open at Tayto park in 2015 and it will be by far the biggest inverted roller-coaster in Europe and will have a strong Irish mythological theme. A team of 70 engineers are working hard to make sure it opens on time.

6. Mr Tayto released his own book

In 2009, Tayto Ltd. published The Man Inside the Jacket, a fictional autobiography of Mr Tayto written by Maia Dunphy, Ciaran Morrison and Mick O’Hara. Tayto indicated that a percentage of the cover price would go to Irish charity Aware.

7. The special relationship with Eva Longoria

When she was speaking in Dublin recently for the web summit the famous actress discovered the crisps herself tweeting it to her millions of followers. Mr Tayto even went as far as sending a letter to the Irish people about the “relationship”.

8. A Tayto crisp sandwich shop opening soon

Just this week we revealed that we would be getting our very own crisp sandwich pop up shop in Wicklow Street in Dublin. Life doesn’t really get much better than this in fairness.

9. The crisps originally came in tin boxes

Although you’d be able to spot the branding a mile off these days the original crisps were packed in tin boxes that contained 8 bags of crisps and sold to shops for 4 shillings.

10. Tayto sells over 525 packs a minute

That’s a lot of spuds!

11. They launched the cheese and onion chocolate bar

Which got a very mixed reaction but as a marketing stunt it did an incredible job getting worldwide coverage. They did end up selling 100s of thousands of bars to curious customers.

12. Tayto Founder “Joe Spud Murphy” Invented the cheese and onion flavour

He died in 2001 but his wonderful legacy to the world was to introduce the cheese and onion flavour to the world via his Tayto brand. Now copied all over the world that is a serious legacy to leave. Not the first 2 things you’d put together in fairness so fair play to him!

13. Tayto is the food most missed by Irish emigrants

A whopping 64% of people surveyed said that cheese and onion crisps are the thing they most miss when they leave Ireland.

14. Sponsoring Meath GAA

Given how many people around the country take their ham sandwiches, tea and crisps to the GAA it was only a matter of time before they sponsored one of the teams.

15. Dara O’Briain sums it up best

When talking about the crisps and what they mean to Irish people while he holds a box of 56 packets of crisps.

16. Tayto as Gaeilge

Launched in 2013 with it’s own distinctive packaging which gave you even more reason to buy into the local brand rather than a large multi national.

17. Mr Tayto ran for election

In 2007 he put himself forward as a viable candidate to compete with “outdated” politicians and getting coverage across the country. It all ended in tears with fines for not removing posters but the goodwill from the public was huge.