Kerrygold Ballyshannon Cheddar Review

The Irish Kerrygold brand is definitely doing their best to sell their Irish butter and cheeses in the United States (U.S.). Recently, while shopping at the Laurel, Maryland Sam's Club store, I stumbled upon their Ballyshannon cheddar. As the cheese is made in Ireland and, I like Ireland a lot, I decided to buy a pre-cut block of their Ballyshannon and Dubliner (review coming later after I've tried it) cheeses.

As I stated, their Ballyshannon cheddar comes in pre-cut and wrapped blocks packed by the Irish Dairy Board Inc in Evanston, Illinois. Sam's Club sells the cheese for $5.97 (U.S.) a pound. My pre-cut block weighed 1.8 pounds. The cheddar is different from other cheddar cheeses I've seen in that it has an ivory color vice the normal yellow. Like other cheddar cheeses, the Ballyshannon is a firm cheese with a good flavor. The cheese has a good shelf life as the one I tried supposedly would've been good till the end of October. However, like other cheeses, it must be refrigerated at all times.

Store wise, there are a wide range of stores in the United States that carry Kerrygold products. I checked the www.kerrygoldusa.com webpage for locations near where I live that sell their products and, I found out, Giant, Weis, Safeway, Shoppers Food Warehouse also sell their products. While I didn't see it listed on their website, I know the Costco in Elkridge/Columbia sells their Dubliner and Blarney Castle (review coming later once I've tried it) cheeses. I can't tell you how their prices stack up compared to Sam's Club. I would think Costco would be comparable with the others being more expensive.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the Ballyshannon cheddar. It reminded me of my tour of Ireland and my hope I can visit there again some day. I'm looking forward to trying the Dubliner and Blarney Castle cheeses I bought. Stay tuned for reviews on those. Bon appetit!

Update February 26, 2014: I visited Costco's Glen Burnie, Maryland store and, I found out you'll pay a premium for Kerrygold's Irish butter. Their butter sells for $4.66 a pound there which is over $2.50 more a pound than Costco's brand which sells for $2.12 a pound. Personally, I suspect Kerrygold's butter isn't worth the premium (butter is butter to me) though I haven't taste tested it yet.

McDonald's Shamrock Shake Review

It's that time of year again when McDonald's comes out with their shamrock shake. It's a green mint flavored shake they sell till St. Patrick's Day (Ireland's Patron Saint) here in the United States (U.S.). I thought I'd reviewed the shake before but, I couldn't find the review on my blog. So, I'm reviewing it again.

The shake is green, mint flavored and topped with a maraschino cherry. I bought a large shake at the McDonald's located on 8700 Washington Boulevard in Jessup, Maryland. Price wise, it cost me $3.19 before tax. I found the shake good. I like things with the flavor of mint and, the shake has a nice mint flavor. Plus, I like that it reminds me of Ireland which I enjoyed visiting and would like to visit again some time.

Overall, if you like mint milk shakes, I think you'd like this one. I know I did. I plan to have another when I visit McDonald's again. Do remember, you can only get these seasonal milk shakes till St. Patrick's Day. After that, you'll have to wait another year to get one. Cheers all!

Back from Ireland

I'm back from Ireland. I flew back Tuesday. The tour was very nice barring some disappointing hotels. Apparently, some hotels feel they don't need air conditioning. I beg to differ. Also, the Great Northern Hotel in Bundoran desperately needs a renovation. My room there was the worst of the hotels I stayed at during the trip. I'll have to post pictures I took of the peeling paint, stained wallpaper, cracked wall and shoebox size room.

Barring the hotel rooms, I enjoyed the tour. I saw lots of beautiful countryside, learned about Ireland and its people, feasted at an Irish medieval banquet, rode a jaunting car (it's like a wagon), clambered inside a mesolithic corridor burial mound, walked medieval walls in Derry, sang Irish songs in an Irish pub while drinking Irish ale, spent far too much money, met lots of wonderful people, took a fair amount of video and over 200 photos, and visited over 19 Irish towns and cities in 12 days. The tour covered a lot of territory. We drove over 1,100 miles.

The tour director Peter Dundon was outstanding. He really knew his stuff. He answered any question you could come up with on Ireland. Our driver Tony Dooley was a marvel. Some of the roads got pretty narrow but, he handled them with ease. Sometimes, there were some roads you didn't want to look down because they were a long way DOWN.

Overall, it was a good tour and, it reminded me how much I love to travel. While en-route home, I called my travel agent Joel Mills to start work on the next tour I'm going to take. That'll be Peru in mid-January 2011. It should be another awesome adventure. I can't wait. Stay tuned for some nice pictures of Ireland. Cheers all!

Ireland Tour Update

To my surprise, it seems Globus was on the ball and realized there was a conflict with my airplane reservations. Apparently, they realized there was no way I was going to make my connecting flight to Baltimore from JFK. To my relief, they didn't move me to a later flight that left JFK which would've caused a 4 hour layover on my way back. Delta decided to have me fly to Dublin from Atlanta instead. I'l gladly take Atlanta over JFK. I know I won't have any problems with my flights arriving or departing from there. The only down side to flying out of Atlanta is I'll have an 8 hour flight vice 7 to Dublin. Also, I wasn't able to get the extra night in Dublin before the tour started that I wanted. Apparently, I waited too long and, Globus released any extra hotel rooms they had with the Dublin hotel. I suspect I'll be one tired puppy for the group's first dinner. Lastly, I found out that the tour I'm on is for all effective purposes sold out. According to my travel agent, there is 1 seat left on the tour for the dates I'm going. I'm delighted the tour will be going. I've never forgotten when Globus cancelled the first tour I signed up for with them. However, we are going to have one packed bus. A full tour means 40 plus people on it. I'll be curious to what kind of mix we get. On the Canada tour I did, we had some Aussies, some Kiwis, some Brits, a few Canadians to my surprise and 2 couples from the Dominican Republic as well as a bunch of Yanks. People from other countries can make the tour kinda cool. It's interesting to hear of their experiences. If we do have some Aussies, I won't envy how long they'll have to fly to get to Ireland. I suspect they would have to fly something like 20 hours at least. It's over 10 hours flying from Sydney to Los Angeles alone. They will be really tired. We'll see. I'm hoping that I'll be able to enjoy some Victoria Bitter in Ireland. I first tried it in Australia and, it is a great brew. Sadly, we can't get it in the U.S. It would be great to knock back a few pints of VB. That's all for this update. Cheers all!

Oh Crap!

As my future trip to Ireland gets closer, I've been checking on things concerning it. Today, I checked on the flights I'll be taking. To my shock, I found out Delta moved the flight I'll be taking to Dublin 3 hours. That means, I'll have a 4 hour plus layover in New York JFK Airport. That sucks! It gets worse coming back. Because they moved the departing flight to Dublin 3 hours, they had to move the returning flight 3 hours. So, I find I now have 1 hour to get through customs at JFK and catch my connecting flight home when I return to the states. I don't think that's going to work. I'm pretty sure Globus will have to change my flight reservations. If all that news wasn't annoying enough, I found out my flight from JFK to Dublin will be 6 hours 55 minutes airtime. 7 hours is a long flight. Hm. Maybe, I should see about flying over a day early so I don't fall asleep at my tour's first group dinner. I checked into that and, it would cost $195 not including tax. I can handle that. It would be nice to have an extra day in Dublin. The tour doesn't spend boat loads of time there any way so, it wouldn't hurt to see more of that city. Now, I have to wait to find out from my travel agent what is going to have flights wise as well as will Globus penalize me if I add a day at the beginning of the tour. We'll see. Hopefully, I can and, I'll get to spend more time in Ireland. We'll see. Stay tuned.

2009 Travel

Well, I have good news for you my faithful readers. I sorted out my 2009 travel plans and there will be some exciting future posts on this blog. In March 2009, I'll be going on a 11 day tour of Egypt. I'll get to see the famous Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Queen Hatshepsut's temple, the temples at Luxor and Karnak and Abu Simbel. It should be an awesome tour. I'm more excited about that one than I am about my future tour of France.

In June 2009, I'll get to take my 2nd cruise. I'll get to visit 4 islands I've never been to: Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua and St. Croix as well as return to St. Maarten. I'm also going to stay in a Junior Suite vice Deluxe Stateroom. I found out how much the price can go up when you hit high season cruise wise. My travel agent offered me 2 June dates for the cruise I wanted: June 7th and June 21st. As you can see, they are only 2 weeks apart. They are $400 apart price wise because the 21st is high season and the 7th isn't. Had I been able to travel a month earlier, I could've saved an additional $400. Apparently, as you get closer to high season, the price begins to climb. I'll remember that when I go on my 3rd cruise.

Lastly, I plan to do a 2 week tour of Ireland in October 2009. This will be interesting as it'll be with the tour company CIE. My travel agent says for Ireland, they do a slightly better tour than Globus. Based on what I saw of their website, I'd have to agree. The Ireland tour promises to be an enjoyable adventure filled with great natural beauty and delightful music.