“Scotland’s other national drink”
In 1901 the Scottish company A. G. Barr developed a new caffeinated soft drink with a wonderfully radioactive looking orange glow, Iron Brew. Its formula remains a closely guarded secret - only two people in the company know it (the formula is kept in a bank vault) - but apparently it’s made “from iron girders”, hence the rusty colour, and great for young men who feel the need to add a bit of iron to their muscles.
In 1946, proposed new food labelling regulations (now where have we heard that before) stipulated that brand names should be ‘literally true’. Barr’s Iron Brew did contain iron (from the girders of course) but was not brewed, so a new spelling evolved and Irn Bru was born.
7 comments January 16th, 2008