One of Ireland’s leading bakeries has revealed a surprising difference in the tastes of its customers in Dublin and Cork. Offbeat Donuts, which is proud to be 100% Irish, has found that customers in the capital seek out fruit flavours first. In Cork, it has emerged that consumers are in love with hazelnut, opting for kinder bueno and nutella flavours before any other.
OffBeat is one of the largest fresh donut bakeries in Ireland and has eight stores in Dublin and Cork employing 120 people. Since 2016, Offbeat Donuts has made a whopping 17.65 million donuts. That’s enough donuts to line the route from Dublin to Cork more than five times over.
In Cork, the most popular flavours are ‘Bueno Bueno’, ‘Happy Hippo’ and ‘Nutella’ all of which contain hazelnut and chocolate toppings or fillings. In contrast, customers in Dublin are drawn towards ‘Offbeat Jam’, ‘Apple Crumble’ and ‘Cookies and Creme’ first.
Plant based donuts are also increasingly popular in both locations, however, sales in Cork are increasing at a faster rate and now account for 15% of all sales in Cork and 7% of sales in Dublin. Offbeat Donuts now offers three vegan flavours including biscoff, chocolate cookie and chocolate ganache.
Husband and wife duo Brian and Sandra O’Casey began experimenting with flavours in a development kitchen located in their shed before they opened their first store in Pearse Station, Westland Row in May 2016.
Offbeat Donuts team members Alanna Dolan and Chloe McCarthy. One of Ireland’s leading bakeries has revealed a surprising difference in the tastes of its customers in Dublin and Cork. Offbeat Donuts, which is proud to be 100% Irish, has found that customers in the capital seek out fruit flavours first. In Cork, it has emerged that consumers are in love with hazelnut, opting for kinder bueno and nutella flavours before any other. Picture: Michael O’Sullivan /OSM PHOTO
Sandra O’Casey said, “In September 2022 we opened our first store outside of the capital in French Church Street, in Cork City. It has been a huge success and we’ve produced around 400,000 donuts in store since then. We always wondered if there were any differences in the tastes between our customers in Cork and Dublin and now we know. What’s clear is that our customers in the Rebel County love hazelnuts and chocolate while in Dublin they prefer our classic Jam Donut or Apple Crumble. It’s incredible to think that we’ve produced nearly 18 million donuts since 2016. We work with some incredible Irish suppliers who have been with us since day one, we continue to work with them as we develop new and exciting flavours to suit all tastes.”
The first donut flavour Brian and Sandra O’Casey created was ‘Glazed’ which was quickly followed by ‘Sprinkles’. It’s estimated that Offbeat Donuts has used more than 8 tonnes of 100s and 1000s over the last 7 years with approximately 4,400 sprinkles on each donut.
OffBeat donuts are freshly made from scratch on-site every day, with customers able to observe the entire baking process while in store. In addition to its large selection of hand-crafted donuts, OffBeat serves loaded ice-cream cones, ethically sourced coffee, cookies and freshly made milkshakes.
