The Twelve Days of POPmas Day 5: Irn Bru

I'm really excited for this one. There's an ever shrinking list of sodas and beverages I've wanted to try since starting this in 2013, and I get to taste two of them this week! This particular beverage has always popped up as a must try on the internet and books (sometimes I read), and it's the #1 selling soda in Scotland beating out both Coke and Pepsi. 

PENIS

Christmas in Scotland is fairly similar to the American Christmas, except it wasn't always. For 400 years, Christmas was banned from being celebrated in Scotland for some vague religious reasons. It wasn't until 1958, that Christians and Non-Christians alike begin to Deck the Halls like their English neighbors. The only major difference is their cuisines. Scots tend to be a little more adventuresome in their Christmas dishes and besides the traditional turkey, they will indulge in roast goose, pheasant, mince meat pies, clootie dumplings, crannachan and...wait for it...cock-a-leekie soup (snicker snicker). And like many other countries, Christmas Day is followed on the 25th by Boxing Day, where we all have a bully time watching old George Foreman clips on YouTube, or so the tradition goes.

Irn Bru, formerly Iron Brew until 1946, is a popular and controversial drink to say the least. As I said, it's the #1 selling soda in Scotland, and also #3 In the UK behind Coke and Pepsi. Their slogan used to be "Scotland's Other National Drink", as a clever nod to Scotish people loving their whiskey. In more recent years, Irn Bru has also met with some controvery with their risque and almost offensive advertisements. These ads would NEVER fly in the US, but Europe is a little more lenient with their rules. I've added a few examples of some of their more controversial ads at the bottom of this page. The beverage is also known for its caffeine content and the strange addition of 0.002% of ammonium ferric citrate, an iron food additive. This bright orange soda has been compared to kola nut, oranges and primarily bubble gum. Let's try it for myself and see! The smell is

faintly of bubble gum for sure. What of the taste? So excited!!! It's SUPER carbonated, and I can only describe it as having a rusty-irony aftertaste. It's sour. A bit like bubble gum, but a taste that's unique and different. I think this would be like if someone tried Pepsi or Coke for the first time; it's hard to really describe it. It's nice enough. I probably wouldn't seek it out again, but I'm happy to have finally tried it. On a side note, I read that it's perceived as tasting much better out of a glass bottle, so maybe I'll have to try it again out of a bottle to compare. 3.5 out of 5 Rudolph Noses.

Some samples of the controversial Irn Bru ads.