A taste of childhood, and intellectual property in recipes

Sharon Noonan, from Ballymena but now resident in Newcastle West, hosts the excellent Best Possible Taste show on West Limerick 102 FM and has produced a fantastic radio documentary about a hidden slice of Irish food history: Devlin’s Yellowman, a homemade toffee made by Sharon’s family and sold at the Lammas Fair in Ballycastle.

In recent years, Sharon encountered products described as Devlin’s Yellowman which were really honeycomb, leading her to research the traditional sweet for a documentary supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland. She talks to family members and locals familiar with Yellowman as well as top chefs, including Noel McMeel of Lough Erne Resort in Enniskillen who served Yellowman Ice Cream to the Barack Obama at a G8 summit in 2013.

As a custodian of the Devlin’s secret family recipe for Yellowman, Sharon explores the history of the product and the future, which leads her to talk to our Rossa McMahon about the intellectual property protections that may be available to her to protect it.

Listen to the documentary here and subscribe to the podcast here.