English Toffee vs. Irish Toffee - What's the Difference?

Here at Flaherty’s Irish Candy Co., one of the most frequent questions we get is: “What’s the difference between English toffee and Irish toffee?” It’s a fair question! There are many types of candy, both here in the U.S. and across the pond in the British Isles, referred to as toffee. In America, English toffee usually refers to a candy made with slow-cooked sugar and butter, forming a brittle, which is then coated in chocolate and nuts. Our Irish toffee follows the same basic principle, but with one key difference - the quality!

English Toffee with Irish Butter

Flaherty’s Irish toffee is made with real Irish butter. If you’ve ever tried a genuine Irish butter, you understand the difference this makes. Irish butter is richer, more flavorful, and creamier, making for the best possible toffee. For our various toffee varieties, we combine Irish butter with other quality ingredients - real white, milk, and dark chocolate, fresh-toasted nuts, real vanilla, rich coffee, and more - to take the classic English toffee and make it better than ever. As a matter of fact, all our candies use real, quality ingredients, without any artificial flavors or preservatives. This makes them allergy-friendly (as our nut-free candies are clearly labeled), in addition to being simple and delicious.

Real Irish Toffee Recipe

Those simple, delicious flavors are the result of our Flaherty family recipes. Brought over from County Galway and County Cork, we’ve been hand-making our sweet Irish treats in copper kettles since 1947. The Flaherty family took a classic English toffee recipe and said what all of us are thinking when cooking: “This needs more butter!” As a result, our Irish toffee contains more than 50% pure Irish butter, as opposed to the 30% butter found in a typical English toffee. The result? A rich, flavorful, tender-crisp toffee that melts in your mouth! At shows, we often hear people say “Oh, I can’t eat toffee, it sticks in my teeth!" But the Flaherty family recipe is different - it’s rich, delicious, and easy to enjoy, thanks to our Irish butter.

Irish Toffee is English Toffee... But Better!

Which, of course, brings us back to the question that started it all. What is the difference between English toffee and Irish toffee? Well, Irish toffee is English toffee at its best. Better ingredients, family recipes, and more butter make for a toffee that’s simply a step above the rest! As we often say in the Flaherty family, if you’re lucky to be Irish, you’re lucky enough - and that applies to English toffee, too.