Treats from Ireland
The Bretzel Bakery's brown bread was excellent. I liked parting the crumbly, nutty and slightly sweet bread with salty Irish cheese.
M&S's crumpets were not really Irish specialties, but we enjoyed them very much.
Especially, the honey we bought at a local cheesemonger in Dingle on the well-toasted crumpets made me smile. The Ballyristeen honey was collected from several kinds of flowers, mainly clover, according to the cheesemonger. It was runny, not too sharp but flavorful.
The three Irish boozy flavors of Butlers' chocolate bars were rather disappointed in my opinion. Generally they were too sweet for me. Most likely the creamy fillings, no matter which flavor, were pretty much sugary. Even their dark chocolate (Irish Whiskey Truffle in this case) contains only 58% cocoa solids minimum, which is probably another problem. That would be a reason that I didn't find them chocolate-y. I take my chocolate standards very seriously.
We welcomed a little adorable sheep home. It's a sheep milk soap. We have placed it in a bathroom, enjoying the nice smell. I will never use it!
An Aran Sweater was also joined J's wardrobe. Aran Sweater is a style of sweater, which originated in the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland and has kept fishermen and farmers on the islands warm from the relentless Atlantic sea and weather for years. We visited a store, specialized in Aran Sweater in the city of Killarney and J chose a green cardigan. It looks very nice on him!
Of course, all the memories of the trip were real treats. Ireland is definitely a country I would like to revisit, perhaps during summer.
