# New Blackthorn recipe changed 'to suit Londoners'



## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

Clueless cockneys ruin Bristol's favourite pint

People reckon it tastes more like Strongbow now. Expect sales in Bristol to go through the floor as a result.


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## killer b (Apr 3, 2009)

but it was minging anyway...


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## danny la rouge (Apr 3, 2009)

Weaker, sweeter, crapper.


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## salem (Apr 3, 2009)

Always a vile drink (from a Londoner )


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## Voley (Apr 3, 2009)

It's always been shite, though.


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## big eejit (Apr 3, 2009)

True. Get down The Apple and get yourself some proper cider!


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

It is Bristol's Chosen Pint. It may not be 'proper' cider but it is what thousands of us drink in the pub out of choice.

It is tolerable in the absence of anything better. Strongbow isn't, therefore moves to make it more like Strongbow are to be resisted.


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## berniedicters (Apr 3, 2009)

NVP said:


> It's always been shite, though.



Industrially produced cider always has been.

It's exactly the same as with lager - they take a brew that has character and interest, reduce it to its component parts, reconstitute it as a "brand" and in doing so manage to lose every trace of individuality about it.

It's as if someone went and found an Old Master, scraped all the paint off it and sorted it into piles of the various colours, then used swatches of those colours and a four inch brush to make something similar.

Only, from the sound of it, this Blackthorn thing involves changing the colours, too.

I make cider with apple juice from Lidl. It's not by any means brilliant - I wouldn't put it up against, say, Weston's Organic Cider, for example. But even that rocketfuel has got more complexity, flavour, and interest than any of the stuff coming out of the big industrial cider brewers. For a start, I don't put artificial sweeteners in mine...


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## FridgeMagnet (Apr 3, 2009)

I'm sure Strongbow used to be drier, too, years ago.


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

JTG said:


> It is Bristol's Chosen Pint. It may not be 'proper' cider but it is what thousands of us drink in the pub out of choice.
> 
> It is tolerable in the absence of anything better. Strongbow isn't, therefore moves to make it more like Strongbow are to be resisted.



Ha ha ha ha!


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## littlebabyjesus (Apr 3, 2009)

It's for the kids, isn't it? Nice and sweet, like pop.


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## bluestreak (Apr 3, 2009)

On behalf of my fellow Londoners who insist on treating Strongbow as a cider and not a pissy sugar-flavoured toilet water, I apologise.  Not all us Cockneys are clueless about cider, some of us are fans who deplore the shite availability of decent cider in our fair city.

That said, Blackthorne is shite too.


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

Onket said:


> Ha ha ha ha!



Up yours

You're not even proper West Country


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## FridgeMagnet (Apr 3, 2009)

It's nothing to do with Londoners, it's just that the provincial folk, recognising the overwhelming superiority of the Capital, assume that everything that happens in their lives must be due to it. Cow sick, crops fail, cider more pissy than usual etc, must be that London.


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## FridgeMagnet (Apr 3, 2009)

bluestreak said:


> On behalf of my fellow Londoners who insist on treating Strongbow as a cider and not a pissy sugar-flavoured toilet water, I apologise.  Not all us Cockneys are clueless about cider, some of us are fans who deplore the shite availability of decent cider in our fair city.
> 
> That said, Blackthorne is shite too.



To be honest I can cope with industrial piss-cider as long as it's not too sweet. It's almost impossible to find a dry cider nowadays - certainly not on tap.


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

FridgeMagnet said:


> It's nothing to do with Londoners, it's just that the provincial folk, recognising the overwhelming superiority of the Capital, assume that everything that happens in their lives must be due to it. Cow sick, crops fail, cider more pissy than usual etc, must be that London.



Wrong


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## spanglechick (Apr 3, 2009)

the 'London' element in the article is a total red-herring, though.


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## Donna Ferentes (Apr 3, 2009)

The only people in the story who mention London are a landlord and some people down the pub, none of whom appear to have any better reason for reckoning what they reckon other than reckoning it.


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## ChrisFilter (Apr 3, 2009)

You gotta love angry provincials 

""It's part of Bristol's culture and if you cut a Bristolian in half, you'll see Blackthorn running through them" - steady.


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## berniedicters (Apr 3, 2009)

FridgeMagnet said:


> To be honest I can cope with industrial piss-cider as long as it's not too sweet. It's almost impossible to find a dry cider nowadays - certainly not on tap.



Ah, you need to come and talk to us on the Quick Brewing Question thread...  Cider so dry you'll still be puckered half an hour after you've finished it...


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

This would be a perfect thread for a pic of the pointing laughing boy off of the Simpsons.


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

spanglechick said:


> the 'London' element in the article is a total red-herring, though.



Not really.

Shit cider - popular in London, not popular here

Money - more to be made over there than over here.

Fact


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

JTG said:


> Shit cider - popular in London, not popular here



Incorrect. See below-



JTG said:


> It is Bristol's Chosen Pint. It may not be 'proper' cider but it is what thousands of us drink in the pub out of choice.


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## tarannau (Apr 3, 2009)

Popular in London my arse. I haven't seen anyone but Norman the novelty cardigan wearer drink that shite here for many a year. It's all Magners or ponced up bottles from Wetherspoons now, with Strongbow the default draught piss. 

Blackthorne was always shite.


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## Callie (Apr 3, 2009)

Popular in London cos that and strongbow is generally the only choice!

You don't have to go far in Bristol to find my better, nicer cider on tap. Round London way if you want nice cider you have to go to wetherspoons and have bottled stuff. Hardly any pubs near me offer anything other than Strongbow


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

tarannau said:


> Popular in London my arse. I haven't seen anyone but Norman the novelty cardigan wearer drink that shite here for many a year. It's all Magners or ponced up bottles from Wetherspoons now, with Strongbow the default draught piss.
> 
> Blackthorne was always shite.



Wrong.

I wasn't even trying to suggest Blackthorn was popular over there. They are trying to make it so. That is my point.


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## tarannau (Apr 3, 2009)

Callie said:


> Popular in London cos that and strongbow is generally the only choice!
> 
> You don't have to go far in Bristol to find my better, nicer cider on tap. Round London way if you want nice cider you have to go to wetherspoons and have bottled stuff. Hardly any pubs near me offer anything other than Strongbow



That's bollocks to be fair. Every shitting other pub's virtually a gastro-branded 'reinvention' down here now, most offering multiple choices of bottled ciders. Even shitholes carry a selection of a few ciders now since the Magners boom too.

Blackthorn has been comparatively rare down here for some years. The rise of Magners draught in addition to bottles and the everpresent Strongbow saw to that. Let's put it this way: Londoners aren't having streetparties in their cockney best to celebrate the birth of this marginally sweeter keg cider smeg.


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

Callie said:


> You don't have to go far in Bristol to find my better, nicer cider on tap.



Yeah. Like Natch 

So many wrong people on one thread amuses me. Callie is not wrong though, I like Callie


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

tarannau said:


> That's bollocks to be fair. Every shitting other pub's virtually a gastro-branded 'reinvention' down here now, most offering multiple choices of bottled ciders. Even shitholes carry a selection of a few ciders now since the Magners boom too.
> 
> Blackthorn has been comparatively rare down here for some years. The rise of Magners draught in addition to bottles and the everpresent Strongbow saw to that. Let's put it this way: Londoners aren't having streetparties in their cockney best to celebrate the birth of this marginally sweeter keg cider smeg.



Still you miss the point.

And Magners is utterly vile as well. Blackthorn is better


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## Callie (Apr 3, 2009)




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## Epico (Apr 3, 2009)

Blackthorn and Strongbow are the same thing. 

FACT.


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## tarannau (Apr 3, 2009)

Blackthorn is an anodyne industrial keg cider, a mildly different Strongbow eequivalent. It's like complaining that the recipe of Tesco Value Cola has been changed.


I think you're missing the point. You're blaming 'cockneys' for this and there's no indication that anybody here gives one little shit about this marginal recipe change. Piease, yokel envy aside, it's not our fault that your failing brewer's got ideas above its station.


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

JTG said:


> Still you miss the point.
> 
> And Magners is utterly vile as well. Blackthorn is better



The point is that you're moaning about a shite cider getting marginally shitter, and attempting to somehow blame people from London for it.

Just drink decent cider.


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

tarannau ------>

<------- the point

have a good weekend, I aint back here for ages now


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

Onket said:


> The point is that you're moaning about a shite cider getting marginally shitter, and attempting to somehow blame people from London for it.
> 
> Just drink decent cider.



No no no

You drink K ffs


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## Callie (Apr 3, 2009)

Epico said:


> Blackthorn and Strongbow are the same thing.
> 
> FACT.



he might just keel you.

Magners and Bulmers are the same though. FACT!


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

JTG said:


> No no no
> 
> You drink K ffs



I drink anything. That is where you fail here.


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## JTG (Apr 3, 2009)

Callie said:


> he might just keel you.
> 
> Magners and Bulmers are the same though. FACT!



yeah, they're both fucking awful. They make you put ice in it to disguise the fact that it tastes of old tyres

definitely going now, feel free to carry on being daft


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## Callie (Apr 3, 2009)

Fancy a bottle of Jacques?


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

JTG said:


> definitely going now, feel free to carry on being daft



You're not going to try & explain yourself then?


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## tarannau (Apr 3, 2009)

They're not the same in different territories you know.

Whatever next eh? The people of Ashby De La Zouch erupt in righteous outrage when their favoured flavour of (Chicken And Mushroom) Pot Noodles is unexpectedly altered, supposedly because that's what then there Pearly Queens in the big smoke like. It's PC gone mad - bring on the pitchfork wielding mobs.


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## danny la rouge (Apr 3, 2009)

Typical bloody Londoners, don't even know when they ruined cider!  No sense of responsibility.


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## mattie (Apr 3, 2009)

It all went wrong when Blackthorns stopped sponsoring the rugby.


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## ChrisFilter (Apr 3, 2009)

I like Westons.


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## Onket (Apr 3, 2009)

mattie said:


> It all went wrong when Blackthorns stopped sponsoring the rugby.



Of course! You've (possibly) inadvertantly stumbled across the reason JTG likes Blackthorn so much. Sponsorship.


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## Threshers_Flail (Apr 3, 2009)

Poofs drink is a poofs drink. Strawberry cider is what it's all about.


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## Geri (Apr 3, 2009)

First got pissed on a bottle of Natch in Pill precinct. 

I cannot stand cider now - at a push I could maybe drink some flat, dry scrumpy but nothing fizzy or sweet.


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## FridgeMagnet (Apr 3, 2009)

tarannau said:


> That's bollocks to be fair. Every shitting other pub's virtually a gastro-branded 'reinvention' down here now, most offering multiple choices of bottled ciders. Even shitholes carry a selection of a few ciders now since the Magners boom too.



Well. You can get Bugners and Malmers everywhere. Sometimes that strawberry stuff that's too sweet and the pear stuff that's too strong and the wotsit blush, all of which are also too expensive. I've seen Aspalls (sweet though 5.5%) around on tap. And apart from Addlestones, the best option really, that's about it.


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