Our family loved the breakfast sausages that we had in Ireland, so I wanted to see if I could find them here. Tommy Maloney seems to be the leader in the States.My family and I really enjoyed the Moloney's sausages. Made in NY, they have much the same flavor and texture of the real thing in Ireland. I couldn't taste a difference. Note that these bangers are of the skinny variety -about finger thickness. They brown up nicely in the skillet and have a satisfying snap when bitten. If you want thicker bangers, Maloney has those as well. We ordered five of the skinny link packages and two 8oz. tubes of the black pudding (also good, if you like black pudding of course).
While we love the product, there is room for improvement in shipping. Our first shipment came on time, shipped by 2nd day air. Unfortunately, the meat arrived at a temperature of over 65 degrees Fahrenheit, not a safe temperature, so I had to discard the shipment. I should note that the temperatures in Texas at the time my shipment arrived were over 100 degrees F, and the package sat in the UPS truck all day long before being delivered to me. The meat was shipped in a cardboard box with a reflective bubble-wrap type of insulating bag. Inside of the bag were fully thawed ice packs and four fully-evaporated dry ice bags. The insulation just wasn't up to the challenge.
I called Maloney's and received friendly customer service. They promised that they would reship the sausages when they could (they only ship to Texas on Mondays). I requested that they ship with more dry ice and insulation.
The replacement package arrived as promised at a safe temperature. Still only one bubble-type insulating bag, but with extra dry ice bags. The dry ice had completely evaporated, but the standard ice packs were still mostly frozen.
Maloney's has a great product, but shipping & packaging is critical to their mail-order customers. I'd suggest some improvements. First, consider double bagging the shipments in the bubble wrap or using styrofoam. Both of my shipments had a lot of condensation on the outside of the bubble wrap which made the cardboard box soggy. A lot of condensation on the reflective bubble wrap means that the bag isn't doing a good job insulating. I've had luck getting frozen pizzas and other meats shipped to me in styrofoam boxes with no problems. Styrofoam is probably more expensive, but when shipping in the summer, especially to the South, styrofoam is the right tool for the job. Second, consider using more dry ice; the dry ice isn't surviving for the two-day trip. Third, the plastic containers on three of the five sausage packages were cracked open in shipment. The plastic containers are too brittle to be stacked in a shipping box without some other kind of protection or support (cardboard, perhaps?). The cracked containers meant that juices from the sausages leaked into the bottom of the insulating bag, which made things a bit messy and required me to repackage the sausages for storage. Ultimately though, the sausages were delicious.
Summing up, I love the product, and will order it again. If you miss your full Irish breakfast, now you can get it in the States. Customer service is great. Shipping, at least to hot parts of the country, could be improved. I hope that Tommy Maloney takes my suggestions in mind for its future shipments.
Buy Traditional Irish Breakfast Links. 1lb Now
Very similar to what he had in England growing up.He thought they were great.
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I bought extra of these since my Dad wont eat any other sausage, made his 60th birthday. Thanks so much.
