GAYMER’S OLDE ENGLISH
Constellation
UK, 4.5% ABV
Part of the Constellation group, the Gaymer Cider Company announced in March 2008 that is was giving Gaymer’s Olde English Cider a £1.2 million marketing boost with a new ‘contemporary’ packaging design. That an ‘Olde English’ cider needs contemporary packaging must say something about current UK drinking trends. Gaymer believe that the updated packaging will bring new customers to the brand – which is more than the taste can be doing. That’s the problem with Olde English: it looks bright and golden, and it sounds traditional and full of history, but unfortunately it doesn’t quite work on the palate. Although it has been brewed under the Olde English name since the 18th century, its production was transferred to Shepton Mallet in Somerset in the mid 1990s after over 200 years of cider making in Attleborough in Norfolk. The brewers reckon they have been able to replicate Norfolk water in Somerset without affecting the taste, but can a drink really taste the same after its production is shifted across the country? One thing that has definitely changed is the ABV – reduced from 5.3% to 4.5%. What ye olde cyder drinkers would make of this is anyone’s guess. Back when it was first brewed in the 1770s, farm workers were paid for their efforts with gallon-jugs of Olde English – perhaps the 18th century equivalent of minimum wage. Back in the 2000s, Gaymer has started sponsoring music festivals – and when you’re up to your oxters in mud and music, who cares what you’re drinking? HC
