13 Comments

Kerrygold is a staple in ALDI in Germany! I would add that President butter in France is not a great example of French butter whereas the beurre d'Isigny, especially with salt crystals is exceptional!

Expand full comment

I see someone above has already mentioned New Zealand—and I want to add to that largely because the marketing of NZ dairy is not dissimilar from what the author discusses about Ireland’s, but also there is so much discussion of ‘the world’ in this piece, and yet (as is not atypical for a European publication) ‘the world’ in this case seems to actually mean ‘the northern hemisphere’. I also enjoyed this piece, and thought it was interesting and illuminating (especially as someone who does not see Irish butter or Kerrygold in the supermarket), so I’m not trying to nitpick for the sake of it. I would offer that there is a lot of economic, marketing, advertising history of NZ that engages with the ways butter/dairy from NZ were/are marketed globally over the past c.150 years, and looking comparatively at Ireland and NZ in this way could be a fruitful (& maybe less exceptionalist on both sides) conversation?

Expand full comment

Greek here who lives in London - if it's not Kerrygold, I don't want it! It's a staple in my home!

Expand full comment

The Irish snooker player Alex Higgins head butted a match official in the 1980s. The tabloids gave him the nickname Kerry Gold as he was the best butter in Ireland

Expand full comment

Would love to know about any smaller Irish butter producers as a contrast to Kerrygold — there must be more to Irish butter beyond just that?

Expand full comment

Lovely, informative post. I found it so interesting to read.

Expand full comment

Lovely piece. There is amazing and world class products/produce from Ireland like Frank Hederman’s Smoked Salmon , incredible cheeses , grass fed beef etc. Kerrygold Butter is not one of them it’s up there with Canadian Kraft Mac n Cheese so loved by the Canadian diaspora 😂

Expand full comment

I suppose Irish butter is okay if you can’t get hold of the genuine New Zealand variety…

Expand full comment

I’m moving to Greece soon and the one food item I’m panicking about not being able to find is decent butter 🧈.

Expand full comment

Loved this. Nostalgia trumps all, however, for me, it's all about Danish butter ;)

Expand full comment

Costco here in the US has it in 4-block boxes, and I might just still be working through my backlog from pandemic purchases (what if all the cargo ships STOP?!?). I like it better than the fancy French butter, even though liking either is betraying my Wisconsin roots.

Expand full comment

I came to Kerrygold through an American food writer who raved about it for baking with even though it wasn't a sponsored post - and as it tends to be cheaper than butter of equivalent quality, it's a pretty regular buy.

Expand full comment

We always have Kerrygold butter in the house. This information makes it all the more special. Thank you 🧈

Expand full comment