Irn-Bru: The Great Scottish Beverage

Whiskey, haggis, bagpipes, kilts, ginger hair and ruddy faces are just a few of the things that should come to mind from the word ‘Scotland.’ But one thing that’s forgotten is another Scottish beverage, one that’s usually eclipsed by whiskey, but one that’s still very important to Scottish popular culture. Irn-Bru is a soft, fizzy drink that’s sold in cans and bottles throughout the UK, though it’s most famously sold in Scotland. It’s fair to call Irn-Bru Scotland’s equivalent to Coca Cola, as, after all, it outsells coke and is the most popular fizzy drink in the country.

In fact, you’ll find it hard to avoid Irn-Bru anywhere you go in Scotland, even in the most prestigious Princes Street hotel Edinburgh has to offer.

To describe the drink, it’s bright orange, with a slightly thick texture, almost syrupy, but sweet, fizzy and delicious. The drink itself has no comparable flavours, but is a little fruity, a little sugary and very refreshing. On a hot summer’s day, sometimes an Irn-Bru will hit a spot that a beer or coke won’t come anywhere close to touching.

Even the name has a distinctly Scottish flavour to it: ‘Irn-Bru’ - how ‘Iron Bru’ would be pronounced in the Scottish dialect. Legend has it that the name ‘Irn-Bru’ came from the nature of its birthplace - a steelworks in Glasgow at the turn of the 20th century. The workers were dying of the vast quantities of beer they were quaffing to cool them from the immense heat of the furnaces, from either liver failure or accidental death. The confectionery company Barr offered to supply the company a specially designed soft drink that would contain no alcohol and that would have refreshing and energising properties, and thus Irn-Bru was born. Whilst it doesn’t quite outdate Coca Cola, Irn-Bru contained caffeine right from the start, which was arguably more sensible than Coca Cola’s choice of including cocaine in their recipe.

If you want to enjoy Scotland with an ice-cold Irn-Bru in hand, there are plenty of great choices of luxury hotel Edinburgh can offer you.