BULMER’S ORIGINAL
Scottish & Newcastle
UK, 4.5% ABV
Surely it will go down as one of the greatest product relaunches ever – the noughties cider-over-ice revolution. Formerly banished to the abandoned roundabouts and swings of desolate inner-suburb parks, cider was rescued and reinvented as a splendidly-chilled complement to a fine summer’s afternoon. But behind the ingeniously simple idea of making cider sexy by pouring it from pint bottles over ice lies a quagmire of legal wrangles involving international markets, patents, market shares, and lots and lots of apples. Let’s clear up one thing straight away – Bulmers and Magners are not the same thing. Unless you’re in Ireland. Confused? Basically, the Bulmers Original brand is owned by C&C in Ireland and S&N in the UK. So when C&C decided to launch Bulmers in the UK in 1999, they changed its name to Magners. Then, when S&N entered the cider-over-ice market in 2006, they launched their new drink as Bulmers. So Magners is Bulmers and Bulmers is something else entirely, unless you’re in Ireland, where Bulmers is Bulmers and Magners doesn’t exist. Anyone else’s head hurting? One thing is clear – with sales of both brands rocketing, it’s a cider war out there. It’s Bulmers versus Magners, with Bulmers being the underdog – and we all know that the Brits love an underdog as much as a few crafty bevvies. Sadly, Bulmers’ flavour is contrived and commercialised almost as if it were made from those plastic apples that sit in furniture showrooms. It’s enjoyable, though anything but original. JW
