All Welsh Cheesy Crisps

South Caernarfon Creameries has teamed up with Madryn Foods to create a new variety of all-Welsh cheese and onion crisps. Launched under the popular Jones Crisps brand, they have been given “extra flavour and tang” thanks to the creamery’s award-winning Dragon cheddar. The potatoes used to make the crisps are also Welsh and come from Anglesey, Pembrokeshire or Monmouthshire, dependent on the time of year.

Madryn Managing Director Geraint Hughes said: “As well as creating a fantastic new addition to our range of Jones Crisps, we are passionate about promoting Welsh food and Welsh producers. From that point of view, working with South Caernarfon Creameries was a no-brainer and their brilliant Dragon cheddar provides the perfect flavouring.

I have a strong emotional attachment with the creamery, with relatives from both sides of my family having close ties over the decades, and the home farm where I was brought up is a supplier member of the farmers' cooperative. The farm is just a few miles as the crow flies from the creamery in Rhydygwystl near Pwllheli and I came here on work experience when I was 15.

We made loads of trial batches before we got the taste just right with the perfect balance between the cheese and the onion. We wanted the cheese to be prominent and the flavour to be strong. The standard of ingredients is all-important because we want to be the best and offer value for money.

I'm very proud to be able to work with South Caernarfon Creameries, the company is a cooperative where farmers have ownership of the organisation and the creamery is answerable to them. That’s one of the reasons why it’s still here and so deeply rooted in the community, because an international company may well have moved the factory to a more central location by now. There are generations of knowledge and skills here which is why the cheese itself is so wonderful. It’s a
traditional aged cheddar that’s alive on the tongue.”

It is a sentiment endorsed by Kirstie Jones, SCC’s Marketing Manager. She said, “Everything starts with the quality of the milk and we have a really successful track record of producing excellent, award-winning cheese. It’s fantastic for us to be able to team up with another iconic Welsh brand with the same ethos as ours, supporting local producers and local communities. The new cheddar and onion crisps have been going down really well and there are high hopes because the
reaction has been universally positive.