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‘Other national drink’ was invented in US 128yrs ago
IT is known as Scotland’s other national drink and according to legend was ‘made from girders’.
But now it has emerged that Irn-Bru, hangover cure of choice for generations of thirsty revellers, isn’t actually Scottish at all.
Researchers claim the drink’s roots lie in the United States – and, to make matters worse, they say an English firm invented the iconic strongman image.
David Leishman, who researched the drink’s history, said it became ‘Scottish through branding and advertising rather than being invented in Scotland’.
The Scot, who lectures at Grenoble Alpes University in France, discovered the first Iron Brew drink was launched in 1889 – earlier than previously thought – as Ironbrew, ‘the ideal American drink’.
Mr Leishman, originally from East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, said he had always thought the drink was invented in Scotland, so he was apprehensive about telling A.G. Barr, makers of today’s IrnBru, of his findings, especially the claim the strongman image had been created by a firm from south of the Border.
He added: ‘But Robin Barr and marketing director Jonathan Kemp were extremely helpful, allowing me access to the archives and answering questions.’
Ironbrew was first sold by New York-based chemicals firm Maas & Waldstein. The company trademarked the name and successfully sued copycat brands. In its US heyday, Ironbrew claimed to have major health benefits but the 1911 Pure Food and Drug Act meant such perceived benefits could no longer be advertised.
Ironbrew is also thought to have been a dark colour similar to arch-rival Coca-Cola, with a vanilla flavour which would make it unrecognisable to today’s drink.
The first UK company to sell the flavour and essence to bottlers was London-based Stevenson & Howell, which launched its product in 1898.
To advertise its Iron Brew, it showed a strongman holding aloft a glass of the beverage surrounded by weights and dumbbells as a trademark.
This featured on labels and advertising that Stevenson & Howell supplied bottlers with and the liquid was the more familiar orange colour we know today.
The strongman was unknowingly adopted by Barr’s for its Irn-Bru, and later became identified with Highland Games athlete Adam Brown.
A.G. Barr is thought to have sold a drink called ‘iron brew’ for the first time as early as 1898.
The company insists it never used the specific Iron Brew essence from Stevenson & Howell in any of its drinks but created its original recipe using a combination of flavours and ingredients.
A spokesman for A.G. Barr said: ‘There have been Iron Brews in the past, but for us there is only one real IRN-BRU. That’s the IrnBru still made by us today to the long-standing Barr secret recipe.’