Guinness -1 stout to rule them all

I remember as child looking at my fathers pint of Guinness and thinking the cream on top must taste nice. How could it not? My dad finally gave in to my incessant pleas over a period of weeks and as a 9 year old I had my first taste in the Coat and Badge pub in Putney......disgusting! I never asked again for a long time.

Headfort Arms, Kells Co. Meath

They say its better tasting in Ireland. I cant taste the difference than London to be honest.

Of course the bitter taste with a tang has to be acquired over a period of time. Often I see adults who have never tasted it before make the same face I did many years ago to which the usual next sentence is "do you want some blackcurrant in it?", the so called 'Guinness and black'.

However, in my twenties I was fully adapted and appreciative of the flavour and would often switch over to Guinness in the winter months from my preferred lager for the warming illusion during the dark nights. The other times I would immediately choose the stout over lager would be weddings or funerals. Bound to be all day drinking affairs for some reason I always seem to be able to be able to not get as drunk on it compared with the same amount of lager. Perhaps its a mental thing or that Guinness is seen as a richer drink so its like you are eating at the same time but the other great benefit is draught Guinness has very little CO2 and is mostly nitrogen. The bubbly CO2 that makes you burp won't stop you from downing pints when you have to at the numerous toasts and times you need to catch up in the round with everybody else before the next is bought.

Guinness is not the only stout available, Murphys' for example is nicer in my opinion, but the exceptional businessmen the Guinness family were (Arthur Guinness managed to make a deal for a 9000 year lease at only £45 a year for the brewery in Dublin) and the outstanding marketing strategies employed by the company have made the brand synonymous with Ireland.

As a student I started working in pubs and when Paddys day came around I was always amazed with the free merchandise sent out for punters to collect, the most iconic probably being the tall foam Guinness hat that was a must get by the end of the night. I was especially impressed one year by miniature violins which played Irish tunes when you pluck the strings. I took a massive inflatable pint of Guinness to New York for Paddys and was mobbed by everybody like it was a celebrity.
In fact owning St. Patricks' day wasn't enough as the company started promoting Arthur Guinness day which is basically a second Paddys' day 6 months after (or before) and it is gaining more and more momentum year after year.

Grab as much Guinness memorabilia as you can. 

See also:

How to pour the perfect pint of Guinness

Baby Guinness shot

Steak and Guinness pie recipe

Black and tan drink

Irish Cadburys chocolate - Easter special

With Easter upon us I thought something topical was in order. The other day I was minding my own business pouring out a pint of lager, when I saw an Irish lady out of the corner of my eye throw something purple at me. Well she did not throw it but I used a bit of drama to capture your attention. The lady passed me a bar of Cadburys chocolate exclaiming "try that". You see she had previously told me that Cadburys chocolate from Ireland is nicer than the Cadburys chocolate in England. Although I doubt she went all the way to Ireland to pick up a bar of chocolate for me, I was extremely grateful for this kind action.

Often you hear people talk about how their own country produces somethings which are better than others. In fact I think this defence of ones own country/culture is intrinsically built in and so naturally I did not feel a need to argue back that this lady is obviously biased to Ireland and that Cadburys make their chocolate the same the world over.

However seeing as though I am a trained scientist (oh yes:), I thought I would finally qualify my student loan and put some of that training to use. I decided to.......compare and contrast this Irish bar against a local version.

Without any further ado let's get into it.

Physical size

Firstly I noticed the weight difference. The English bar is substantially bigger. The English bar proudly states 49g on the packaging whereas there is no trace of a weight on the Irish packet. I think the manufacterers are ashamed! After some ratio mathematical magic I worked out the Irish bar to be a measly 17.86g! (I could have weighed it obviously but I had already eaten it). I do not know the price in cent of this bar but the English version is about 40-50p and I can not imagine the Irish shops selling them for much less than 50 cent. On one hand, it shows awful value for money but on the other rather chubby hand it shows an excess of need. Will I be satisfied with a bar of chocolate whatever the weight? Do I need those extra grams circulating around my body looking for a bed?

I would say that in the current economic climate value for money is more important than love handles since you can always walk that bit further to remedy the situation.

Irish Cadburys 0

English Cadburys 1

Aesthetics - Packaging

The English version wins chubby hands down despite a nice effort by the Irish to include a second gold leaf foil in a Willy Wonka homage. The English version has substance, an amazing sheen and feel to it that makes me not want to throw it away but wear it on my feet. There is an amazing colour change to a darker purple as some direct reflection changes to diffuse reflection. This is a wrapper worthy to be in Captain Picards fridge on the Enterprise with it's stylized technological beauty. The Irish version would feel at home in a ration pack during the Second world war I'm afraid.

Irish Cadburys 0
English Cadburys 2

Ergonomics or ease of use

English version: The separate chunks of chocolate notched into perfect portions allowing the user complete control with minimal effort.

Irish version: Initial attempt to break off some resulted in shards of chocolate all over my mothers clean carpet. More ended up on that than in me but the vigorous cleaning required afterwards did burn off quite a few calories. In fact I would compare it to celery in that eating it resulted in me using rather than accumulating calories.

But with people suing each other over the littlest thing, Cadburys England can be rest assured that no lawsuits will be coming their way as no accident at all can happen when using their user friendly bars.

Irish Cadburys 0

English Cadburys 3

Taste

The most important consideration and initially I thought it would be obvious they would be the same, coming from the same manufacturer but I was wrong. I tried both in the fashion of wine tasting (I had to clean the carpet again though after spitting on it, damn), I was perplexed by what I was sensing. Was it because the English chunkiness meant a textural change and had influenced taste? Was the wafer thin Irish bar too small for any change in taste at all?

I distinctly recognised the English bar as having a characteristic Cadburys taste and was far stronger than the Irish version, overpowering in fact. The Irish bar was smoother, creamier but not in your chubby face like the English bar. I was astounded and immediately shared my taste experiments with others. Principally, without putting a heap of statistical graphs and analysis down, the English bar was sweeter. Frantically I scanned the nutritional information on the packaging (the English one was like an essay), and there incredibly I found it. Nearly a gram more sugar (per 100g). Not really a lot when the Irish bar is lighter than an email but obviously enough.

The only other differences were that The Irish bar had nearly a gram more protein (per hundred) most likely to make up for the loss in sugar and keep the calorie levels identical.

Irish Cadburys 25
English Cadburys 3

Obviously taste has more weight in the comparison so in the home straight the Irish have won it (as they only too often do!)

Carrageen moss - more than just an algae

Algae is something I am familiar with. On a daily basis I drink the microscopic type of algae, Spirulina, and so I looked forward to trying it's macroscopic cousin in the form of seaweed or Carrageen moss (Chondrus Crispus). Also known as Irish moss, it is a dark purplish seaweed and is abundantly found growing on the rocks in the lower part of the Irish seashore, Carraig being Gaelic for rock.

The seaweed is dried out and bleached in the sun after being collected at low tide during the summer. After purchase the seaweed is usually soaked for about 15 mins to half an hour to rehydrate and then washed thoroughly under cold running water to remove dirt and much of the salt.

Carrageen moss is high in vitamins and minerals such as iodine, vitamin A, vitamin B12 and others but also has a range of other effects such as being an antiseptic, digestive aid, blood thinner and it encourages phlegm to be coughed up while soothing dry mucous membranes. The latter explaining why it is traditionally used in Ireland for com batting chesty coughs or chest infections.

As well as it's traditional medicinal usage, it also has a traditional culinary usage in that it is a very good thickening agent for soups, stews and in making jellies.

Recipes

Carrageen drink for flu, chesty coughs or general malaise.

Carrageen milk dessert

Carrageen jelly