You’d love a Babycham, say owners, as they plan to bring sparkle back to old favourite
BABYCHAM is targeting a comeback, as its owners claim many drinkers would choose it over Champagne.
The sweet sparkling perry, once aimed at women looking for a lighter alcoholic option, became a marketing phenomenon in the 1960s and 70s with its catchphrase “I’d love a Babycham!”.
While alcopops and ready-mixed drinks have since replaced it in the affections of many, Babycham is back in the ownership of the Shepton Mallet-based Showering family that created it in the 1950s and hopes to give it a new lease of life.
The family plans to target younger drinkers.
Matthew Showering, the grandson of Francis Showering, the Somerset innkeeper who dreamed up the recipe, claims that many drinkers would prefer it to today’s offerings, because of its sweetness. “If you were to put a Babycham and a prosecco, or even a champagne, side by side, there are a lot of people who would actually prefer the Babycham, because it hasn’t got that dry rasp,” he told The Observer.
“It’s important to stick with that. It’s why it took off.
“We will get closer to the original production method and recipe, as some things got chiselled away for speed with mass production.
And we are going towards the original look too, so we’ll have quite a retro feel which, oddly, will make it more modern.”
The Showerings are also planning a revamp of the Babycham glasses – a smaller version of the wide-bowled champagne coupe – and bottles.
Invented 70 years ago, Babycham was the first alcoholic drink to be advertised on television.
Its logo – a cute and kitsch fawn with a blue bow, created by John Emperor of Collett Dickenson Pearce of London – also helped secure the beverage’s iconic place in the alcohol market at the time.
By 1977, some 144 million bottles of Babycham were being sold per year.
“We want to keep that sense of celebration about it,” Mr Showering added. “Back then, nearly all drinks were sold in pubs. You’d have a glass on show and maybe a little deer on the bar.”