We can get soooooo excited when we are going to do something that we have always wanted to do.
That's the way we were just after Christmas in 2012.
We were nearly more excited about going to Tayto Castle than we were about our Christmas Dinners.
If you are not
Norn Irish then you may well be puzzling over where and what is Tayto Castle.
If you were born here in Northern Ireland or have come to live in this beautiful country then you will probably have heard of Tayto Castle in the small town of Tandragee.
But one thing is sure if you are in Northern Ireland and have not heard of Tayto Crisps then there is something badly wrong because they are the best crisps in the world.
Please note I have
NOT been given a big box of
Tayto Cheese & Onion or
Smokey Bacon to make me write this - unfortunately.
Tayto Castle is the home of Tayto Crisps.
Yes they make the crisps in a Castle.
Only a Castle is good enough for the best crisps in the world.
When our three kids were young I kept saying that one summer we would organize a day trip to Tayto Castle to get the tour and see the crisps being made.
Yes I kept saying it but that didn't make it happen and the years went on with people telling us that you have to book months in advance if not a year in advance if you wanted to go during the school summer holidays.
So we never did make that trip when we were living almost 2 hours away but now we live only 30 mins away and yes we finally got to make that trip.
The Tayto signpost points you to a door in a stone wall for your adventure to begin.
Our fun had already begun as Linda and I were giggling away while I was trying to take pictures.
There is an intercom but it was fun to knock as well.
Then when they released the door for us we were
ready to enter the grounds of Tayto Castle.
Inside there is a short walk up to the part of the Castle where we had to go for the tour
and we saw this lovely feature on the wall of the Castle.
As we got closer there was a part to walk through and of course we had to stop to get a picture of Mr Tayto and his crispy, crunchy crisps.
Inside and we were greeted with masses of crisp signs hanging from the ceiling.
See the yellow pack that's my favourite - Cheese & Onion.
Photo opportunity with Mr Tayto himself and he wasn't the only one who was laughing, we could hardly stand still for the picture we were all laughing so much at the thought of this grown up family (including the boys) getting their picture taken with Mr Tayto.
Everyone working there was so friendly and chatted to us while we sat and waited for the rest of the people on the tour to arrive.
All over the walls were letters from children saying what a great time they had had on the tour.
None of the tour could be photographed and there were rules and regulations about going around the factory which is understandable as safety and contamination has to be of the utmost importance, but no one minds rules for this type of thing.
We walked round and saw
- the potatoes,
- the slicing,
- the cooking,
- the flavouring
- the sorting
- and the packaging
- and also all the different types of crisps that they make
as well as "testing" out all the flavours.
Yes "testing" as in TASTING.
There is quite a lot of "testing" going on as the tour goes round.
We really enjoyed that part!!!
No handbags, phones, cameras, keys etc. can be taken with you on the tour because of the risk of contamination of the product so basically you take off your coats and empty your pockets and hand over your belongings before the tour starts.
Plus you have to put on an apron and hair nets just as the workers have to wear.
Here we are at the end of the tour when they have a very important moment.
The moment when you have to make the big decision as to what flavour of crisp you want because everyone gets bags of crisps to take home with them.
Now my favourite is Cheese & Onion but I chose Smokey Bacon for my free gift because I had already decided that on the way out we would be buying a big box of Cheese & Onion (they are cheaper to buy in the big box & since then we have rung up and ordered boxes whenever the kids are coming to stay for a while and then we just drive over and pick them up at the Castle).
All the way round in the tour various people were asking questions and the tour guides are very willing to answer and explain almost everything.
Everything except
"What is the secret of the great Tayto Taste?"
That has to remain a secret or Tayto Crisps would not be the greatest Crisps.
You may not learn the secret but the tour is well worth the money and the time.
You will find more info on
Tayto HERE
In case you don't know, the pink packet is the Prawn Cocktail flavour crisps.
Remember back to the picture above with the hair nets?
In it we all had our free crisps.
3 of our family Fred, Jonathan & Linda had yellow Tayto Carrier Bags with their choice of crisps whereas Daniel & I had Tayto Multipacks.
Well 2 of the three with the yellow bags had prawn cocktail and salt & vinegar crisps (the two types represented in this picture above).
Can you guess who had the pink packets and who had the blue?
Well the tour was over and we had got our free gift and the last thing was the shop.
We stopped there and got our box of Cheese & Onion and also bought a few little gifts one of which was a yellow Tayto Mug.
Then it was on out to have a last look around outside before we hurried home to finish making our second Christmas Dinner because my sister and her family were coming to visit and it was the 27th December.
But before we got back in the car another picture had to be taken to encourage everyone to go visit Tayto Castle.
Ever the crazy, fun loving, younger sister; Linda had to pose while the boys walked away hoping no-one would know she was with them.
I think it was almost better to have done the tour now because of the fun and humour between us all at this stage in their lives than when they would have been so much younger.
I'm sure they would have been too young before to have enjoyed it as much as we did now.
