32 sweet tastes of Ireland

Ask that question about savoury food and the answers often come easily.

Not every county can claim a dessert entirely of its own, so we’ve taken a slightly broader approach.

Here are 32 sweet tastes to seek out around the island.

No visit to Ballycastle’s Ould Lammas Fair would be complete without Yellowman. The hard, honeycomb-like sweet has been enjoyed at the traditional Co Antrim fair for generations and remains one of its best-known tastes, alongside dulse.

Ireland’s Orchard County has an obvious contender. Armagh’s climate and soil are particularly well suited to Bramley apples, which hold their flavour when cooked and are widely used in pies, tarts and crumbles. A warm Bramley apple tart is about as fitting an Armagh dessert as you could ask for.

For Carlow, we’re heading to Rath near Tullow, home of the Chocolate Garden of Ireland. The family business makes handcrafted chocolates and ice cream on site, with a café, shop and chocolate-making experiences for anyone who wants to make a day of it.

Master chocolatier Ann Rudden founded Áine’s Handmade Chocolate in 1999 and later brought the business to Stradone, Co Cavan. Today its chocolates are still produced there, with everything from bars and honeycomb to boxed chocolates providing plenty of excuses for a sweet treat.

Chocolate with a taste of the Burren comes courtesy of Hazel Mountain Chocolate in Bellharbour. Its bean-to-bar factory roasts, cracks and grinds cacao on site, with some creations also drawing on local flavours including sea salt, honey, berries and flowers.

There is something wonderfully old-school about Cork’s choice. Sweets have been handmade by the Linehan family at Shandon Sweets since 1929, using traditional methods and machinery. Clove Rock is perhaps the most Cork of them all - the confectioner itself describes it as a local tradition, with its distinctive clove aroma once drifting through the north side of the city.

A trip to the Promenade in Portstewart has meant ice cream for generations. Morelli’s traces its story back to 1911 and still serves its famous ice creams and elaborate sundaes today. For an extra local connection, its Yellow Man sundae combines vanilla and honeycomb ice cream with honeycomb pieces, fudge and caramel sauce.

Seaweed for dessert may sound unusual, but carrageen moss has long been used to set creamy milk puddings around Ireland’s Atlantic coast. At Rathmullan House in Donegal, local carrageen has traditionally been served with fruit compote, giving this old Irish pudding a particularly strong Donegal home.

On the Ards Peninsula, the Taylor family has farmed at Glastry for generations. Milk from the farm goes into its range of ice creams, which includes flavours such as Yellowman Honeycomb, raspberry and lavender, chocolate and salted caramel, and white chocolate with wild blackberry.

Few entries on our list are as firmly rooted in one place as Dublin’s gur cake. Traditionally made by sandwiching a spiced mixture of leftover cake and bread between layers of pastry, it was an ingenious bakery solution to avoiding waste - and became a Dublin favourite in the process.

Made on the Grey family farm at Killadeas, Tickety Moo uses the rich milk of Jersey cows to produce its farmhouse ice cream. Flavours have ranged from classic chocolate to rhubarb and custard crumble, making it a fitting sweet taste of Fermanagh farming.

Tomás Póil grew up on Inis Oírr remembering the special toffee his grandmother used to make. Those childhood memories eventually inspired Man of Aran Fudge, which now makes a wide range of flavours, including the original Tiger Butter Fudge.

It would be difficult to find a chocolate factory with a more dramatic setting. Skelligs Chocolate makes its chocolates at St Finian’s Bay in Ballinskelligs, overlooking the Skelligs. Founded in 1996, its handmade range gives Kerry a sweet treat that knows its place.

Lily O’Brien’s began in Mary Ann O’Brien’s Kildare kitchen in 1992 with little more than two saucepans and a wooden spoon. The company has grown considerably since then, but its chocolates continue to be made in Newbridge, making it an easy choice for Kildare.

Chef Mary Teehan founded the Truffle Fairy in 2005 and built the business from farmers’ markets into a specialist chocolatier. Its truffles, bars and other chocolate treats are made at its Thomastown base, where the shop remains a tempting stop for anyone with a sweet tooth.

Traditional baking gets a modern twist at Aghaboe Farm Foods in Co Laois. Niamh Maher runs the artisan bakery from her family’s 200-year-old home, making seasonal cakes, tarts and puddings by hand. Its award-winning bakes have included Christmas cake, mince pies and lemon meringue tart.

Sometimes the simplest treats have the strongest following. In Carrick-on-Shannon, Coffey’s Pastry Case is known for its chocolate-covered bun - a sweet that Discover Ireland describes as a much-loved Leitrim treat. That’s good enough for us.

For a Limerick blast from the past, head for the chocolate boat bun. The family-run Danes Bakery has been baking in Limerick City since 1941 and still counts its “legendary” chocolate boat buns among the old-school favourites it continues to make.

Torc Chocolate Express has been established in Longford since 1997 and continues to make chocolate locally. Its current selection ranges from truffles and salted caramels to chocolate bars, toffees and hot chocolate bombs.

The cream bun has earned itself a place in Drogheda’s food story. Local tourism guides point visitors towards McCloskey’s Moorland Café for a traditional cream bun, saying that the bakery has been famous for them for generations. McCloskey’s itself has been part of the north-east baking scene for around 80 years.

Hillcrest Home Bakery near Charlestown began in 2000 after four local women came together following the closure of another bakery. The new business started with just two products - apple tart and rhubarb tart, made using locally sourced ingredients.

In Kilmessan, the Flaherty family behind What’s For Pudding? have turned a homemade favourite into an award-winning business. Their traditional sticky toffee pudding, packed with dates and toffee sauce, won gold at Blas na hÉireann not long after the business began.

Carleton Cakes in Dyan, Co Monaghan, has long specialised in home-baking-style cakes and traybakes. Its caramel squares bring together the classic combination of biscuit, caramel and chocolate - simple, familiar and very difficult to pass up with a cup of tea.

Offaly has a particularly impressive contemporary choice. Tullamore-based Bon Chocolatiers, founded by chefs Georgia Quealy and Daniel Linehan, was named Supreme Champion at the 2025 Blas na hÉireann Irish Food Awards. Its handmade creations range from filled chocolates to bars and truffles.

Molloy’s Bakery has been part of Roscommon Town since 1922 and is now into its fourth generation. Among its traditional favourites are apple and rhubarb tarts; we’re choosing the latter, with tangy rhubarb packed into short pastry and best served, naturally, with a little cream.

Mammy Johnston’s story began on the Strandhill seafront in the early 1930s, and ice cream making has remained in the Byrne family for three generations. Today the Strandhill shop continues to make its own award-winning gelato, keeping a near-century-old local tradition alive.

Tipperary’s Apple Farm near Cahir grows dozens of apple varieties, including sharp Bramleys particularly well suited to cooking. We’re putting those apples where generations of Irish cooks would expect to find them: beneath a buttery pastry lid in a proper apple tart.

Catherine Finnegan’s Fluffy Meringue brings some colour to Tyrone’s entry. Made at an artisan farm bakery in Clogher, the oversized meringues come in flavours including salted caramel, pistachio and elderflower, lemon, raspberry and chocolate orange.

Barron’s Bakery in Cappoquin has been baking since 1887 and still uses its traditional Scotch brick ovens. Alongside its breads and famous blaas, the café serves a bread and butter pudding - an appropriately comforting dessert from one of Ireland’s oldest traditional bakeries.

On the banks of the River Brosna, Kilbeggan Handmade Chocolate makes its chocolate from bean to bar. The chocolates are handcrafted at its Kilbeggan coffee shop using locally sourced ingredients where possible.

Sometimes you don’t need to improve on the obvious. Wexford and strawberries have become synonymous, with generations of growers and the familiar roadside strawberry huts marking the arrival of summer. Add a generous spoonful of whipped cream and dessert is sorted.

Our Wicklow choice brings the tour right up to date. Joyful Bakehouse in Rathnew makes familiar desserts with South Asian and Middle Eastern influences. Its saffron milk cake is a tres-leches-style sponge soaked in fragrant saffron milk, finished with cream, saffron and pistachio – a reminder that Ireland’s food story continues to evolve.