Cheers! Shandy is back (with a modern twist)

BEFORE the craze for energy drinks, it was the refreshment of choice for thirsty sportsmen – and not-so-sporty types – on a hot day.

Now shandy is making a comeback, along with lager top, thanks to the rise in demand for lower alcohol drinks.

But the traditional mixture of bitter and lemonade in roughly equal amounts is being tweaked to appeal to today’s younger drinkers. An array of more exotic combinations of ale or lager with flavours such as elderflower, grapefruit and ginger beer have been developed for a generation that has turned its back on binge drinking.

Supermarket sales of low and no-alcohol beer, wine and spirits have surged by 50 per cent in the past year. Next month Sainsbury’s is to start selling craft brand Shandy Shack, which makes a 2.8 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) mix of IPA and lemonade as well as a 2.5 per cent ABV elderflower lager top – a mix of lager and elderflower presse.

Ed Stapleton, co-founder of Shandy Shack, said the Oxford company wanted shandy to reclaim its ‘rightful place as the country’s favourite lowalcohol drink’.

The reinvented shandies may, in fact, be nearer to the original version of the drink. ‘Shandygaff’, first mentioned in the 1850s, was a mix of beer and ginger ale and is still popular in the Caribbean.

Its name was possibly derived from ‘shanty’, a slang word for a pub.

Research by retail analysts Mintel found a third of drinkers have reduced their alcohol intake since the first lockdown, mainly to improve health, lose weight or save money.