Irish Cream Three-Way: Carolan's vs Bailey's vs Ballycastle Premium (2024)

For many people,Irish Cream is a staple requirement around Christmas time. That’s why the mainsupermarkets start a bit of a price war, one that this year led to Baileysbeing available in Asda for £9. Yes, that’s more than you’d pay for Aldi’sBallycastle Premium, but as I keep saying, Baileys is the undisputed king, andthat’s a pretty good discount (about £5).

Asda actually had achoice of Baileys flavours on offer, but I haven’t gotten around to those yet.It’s the Original I’m interested in at this point. Mrs Cake agreed to join mein a comparative tasting later that afternoon.

Statistics firstthough; I paid an outrageous £14.50 for the Carolan’s, which equates to £1 perpercent of ABV. The Baileys, which is usually pricey, as I said was £9, buthere you’re getting a cockle-warming 17%.

So, one comparativetasting with the missus coming up…

The main use we havefor Irish Cream is over ice, so thatwould be where the winner would be decided. I would also try the Baileys incoffee, but that would be just additional to the main experiment. I poured aglass of each product for Mrs Cake and I and repaired to the living room towatch a bit of telly and draw some conclusions.

I couldn't tell anydifference. Both look creamy and good, neither show the kind of wateriness youmight expect from cheaper brands. Neither are cheap, so all is as it should be.Mrs Cake called them out by sight, but I forgot to ask her what gave it away.

I don’t drink IrishCream in the same way I drink spirits so nosing doesn’t really come into it. Istarted with a couple of sips of Carolan’s, and enjoyed it as I had been doingup to now. When I went for a sip of the Bailey’s though, the nose leaps out atyou… it’s just so creamy… like goodice cream. And the flavour… is just superb, not a note out of place. Carolan’sis nice, in fact Mrs Cake said she prefers Carolan’s for its unique flavour,but for me, while I enjoy the Carolan’s, moving back to the Baileys makes me exclaim – out loud, things like ‘it’s like chocolate truffles!’. Itachieves the ultimate accolade – a drink that is worth savouring every drop sofor me, at this point it is still the king.

When it comes tocoffee, I already stated in an earlier post that Carolan’s doesn’t go too well.There’s just something a bit weird about it. None of that with Baileys… in factno other Irish Cream has failed to excel with coffee so far, so that has to bea mark against Carolan’s.

Well, we know nowwho is the Irish Cream champion among the higher priced category, but we needto know who is really the king though.I had to get a Ballycastle Premium in, didn’t I? Oh yes. So I did.

It has featured onthis blog before, but just as a reminder, Ballycastle Premium is the premiumexpression of Aldi’s flagship own brand. For ABV it matches Baileys with 17%and my latest bottle cost £6.49 – that’s an increase of 50p on last time,though it still represents great value.

There’s no need togo too deeply into this one, so let’s cut to the chase; is it as good asBailey’s? Well, not quite, but it’s very close. Mrs Cake reckons she prefersthe normal Ballycastle to both, but for me the Bailey’s is just slightly moreluxurious, slightly better balanced, more creamy, less milky but… you have toremember that pricetag. If you can pick up a Bailey’s consistently for £9 I’drecommend that you do but if you can’t… or if the pounds are a little hard tocome by one month… Ballycastle Premium makes an able deputy.

I think… it’s timeto start heading out into all the different supermarkets and seeing whatalternative brands they have. Keep an eye out for further updates.