Exclusive: We Speak To The Guinness Guru Ahead Of St Patrick’s Day

With St. Patrick’s Day fast approaching, CasinoSource teamed up with the world’s most well-known Guinness taster the Guinness Guru, Darragh Curran…

People all over the world will be taking part in the celebration from Dublin to New York and as far as Tokyo, Japan.

Speaking exclusively with CasinoSource in association with Wexford Weekly, the Guinness Guru said:

“Ask me that ten years ago I would say “What cult following?”. Ask me now and I would tell you it’s down to social media – not blowing smoke up my own arse. Back in 2013, when I was a young budding 20-year-old, to order a pint of Guinness was considered odd. It was perceived as an ‘old man’s drink.

“Nowadays, young bucks are learning the ways of Guinness from idiots like myself online. They are realising the beauty of the black stuff early in life and acquire a taste for it because they want to drink what the ‘rest of the lads’ are drinking.

“If you sit and drink with a group of young lads now they will talk just as much about the Guinness as they will football and other general male topics. It’s got so many more talking points than any other alcohol such as the glass, the ‘shtick’, the ‘domeage’. Things that non-Guinness drinkers will never understand. If you know, you know.”

Best Place in Ireland To Try Guinness

The west of Ireland in general performed well in the Guinness ratings with counties Galway and Sligo both featuring in the top 5. With no pub featuring a score less than 8, you will be hard-pressed to find a bad pint of Guinness when visiting the City of the Tribes.

Among the cream of the crop here is Taaffes Bar, located on 19 Shop St, which managed to earn an elusive score in the nines coming in at 9.1/10. Near neighbours to the north Sligo finished in fourth place with a respectable 8.28/10, but without a 9/10 establishment on the card, you’re more likely to find a good pint of Guinness here than a great one.

Likewise, when The Guinness Guru travelled to Wexford, the Wexford pubs all received respectable scores. The Wexford town based pubs made a good showing for themselves overall; The Undertaker received an 8/10 vote, Jim Mc Gees scored the same with another 8/10 vote, Bugler Doyles scored 7.8, while the The Sky and the Ground scored slightly higher and received 7.9. As a result, Wexford ranks in the top 10 places in Ireland to buy a pint of the creamy one.

“It’s funny, I don’t often think about where the actual towns/cities rank against each other,” the Guinness Guru explained.

“My rankings tend to only concern the pubs themselves. But when put into perspective, the standard of Guinness in Galway was absolutely top tier. For me, the city of Galway manages to mesh together the exciting feeling of being in the big smoke with the rural heartbeat of the West. If Dublin and Dingle had a lovechild, the child’s name would be Galway.”

Dublin In Bottom Half of Irish Counties for a Good Guinness

Surprisingly, Ireland’s capital scored poorly compared to competitors, but this should be taken with a pinch of salt. Dublin had by far the biggest sample size out of any county, so while an average score of 7.95/10 doesn’t stack up well against the competition, it’s most likely the truest reflection of your chances of getting a good pint of Guinness.

“I can’t help but stand strong against these slanderous claims. This is purely down to the number of pubs. I’m no statistician but I reckon I’ve been to 20-30 pubs around Dublin City as opposed to 4-5 boozers in other cities.

“I would argue that if you took my best 5 reviews from Dublin it would most certainly rival Galway and the other top cities. Dublin is my bread & butter so I’d have to call for a VAR review on this controversial ‘bottom half of the table’ statement.

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