Cider producer Westons is launching a new range of cloudy ciders on tap, flavoured with fruits from the English countryside.
Building on the success of its Rosie’s Pig still cloudy cider brand, it is introducing three new products: Flat Tyre with rhubarb, Handbrake with damson and Old Banger with raspberry.
The Rosie’s Pig Festival ciders come in a 10-litre, fridge-friendly, bag-in-box format, with an ABV of 4%. They will not be available in any format in the off-trade.
Tim Williams, Rosie’s Pig brand manager, said: “The names of the ciders each relate to stories about Rosie’s Pig, Westons’ first delivery truck, which was notorious for being ‘a pig to start and a pig to drive’.
“The new Rosie’s Pig Festival range flavours of Rhubarb, Damson and Raspberry will help broaden the appeal of cloudy cider, bringing in new drinkers across all age groups.
“The cloudy cider market as a whole is in strong growth, and Westons owns the UK’s favourite and original cider brand, Old Rosie, which, with its higher ABV of 7.3%, has a real depth of taste and flavour.
“Westons used this heritage and expertise to successfully launch the Rosie’s Pig brand three years ago as a new refreshing alternative entry point into cloudy cider, with a lower ABV of 4.8%.
“The latest addition to the Rosie’s Pig brand introduces three flavours with a distinctive craft look and feel, which will appeal to a different drinker and drinking occasion. Both Old Rosie and Rosie’s Pig ciders are slowly matured and left unfiltered to give them their authentic flavours.”
Although Westons released Rosie’s Pig with Rhubarb as Old Rosie Cloudy Cider with Rhubarb as part of a series of limited-edition flavours last year, the company is not known for making flavoured ciders.
Sally McKinnon, head of brands at Westons, said: “Whenever we innovate, we always like to see where we can deliver something different to consumers and the trade. We are leveraging an opportunity behind fruit cider but delivering it in a different way.”
Westons Cider is now run by the fourth generation of the Weston family, which has been producing traditional English cider in the Herefordshire village of Much Marcle since 1880. It makes a broad range of premium ciders including Stowford Press, Wyld Wood, Henry Westons, Mortimer’s Orchard and Caple Rd.
