ON THIS ONE island, there lives two Mr Taytos.

Most of us here will be familiar with the Mr Tayto that resides in Meath and is the face of Tayto crisps down South. He’s a lovable rogue:

Taste Ireland Taste Ireland

But of course, there is another Mr Tayto that produces crisps for Northern Ireland – and he works for a completely different company.

Look at him there:

Both are iconic cheese & onion crisps in their respective jurisdictions – but which taste better? Well, there was only one thing to do:

A taste off between Irish Tayto and Northern Irish Tayto

Yes.

DailyEdge.ie gathered together a round table of willing tasters to see what they thought of each cheese & onion offering.

First impressions of the Northern one?

The taste is almost overwhelming. A very strong onion off it. It’s not bad.

They have ramped the onion up on it. The onion flavours are off the chain. They’re not great.

I actually like them. It’s a dry, starchy style snack. There’s a big difference between them and the normal ones.

Once compared to their Republic brethren, opinions on the Northern Tayto were strong:

They have a stronger flavour. They are like a pub crisp or something.

The Northern ones aren’t as crispy. I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad thing.

I just think they are like brand imitation crisps. Just not as good as the real thing.

Look at them there side by side – a rare sight

https://vine.co/v/iznPaJ9d51v

Some people started out favouring the Northern Tayto but within a few crisps had completely changed their mind:

I don’t know. They just taste a little artificial or something. At first I thought the stronger taste was better, but after a few you start to think regular Tayto is nicer.

I think they taste more starchy and less greasy. But I’d still go with normal Tayto.

So, the final verdict?

Overall there were seven votes for the Republic Tayto and just one solitary vote in favour of the Northern brand.

A clear winner, then.

However, nearly the whole panel are used to the Republic-based Taytos so perhaps that is telling in their verdicts. The one intrepid taster who grew up in Northern Ireland sided with the yellow variety, proving that bias might be at play:

Northern Tayto is definitely better. I think the Northern Tayto had a slightly more robust flavour to them and the Southern ones were maybe a bit sweeter. Both pretty good though.

So, perhaps people’s Tayto history plays a factor but the highly scientific results are not in question – Irish Tayto wins the day.

More Mr Tayto went to Coppers last night to celebrate the All Ireland Final>