Magners adds whisky to its new cider

If brewers can add spirits to their beers – think Desperados – so can cider manufacturers. Now there are spirit ciders – or “spiders” – to grab the attention of trend-conscious younger consumers. This burgeoning “spider” category has a new entrant in the form of Magners with Irish whiskey.

Each 500 ml bottle of the 5.5% ABV cider contains 25 ml of Irish whisky. The Irish C&C Group, which owns the brand, has termed the launch a “game changer.” The original Magners cider has 4.5% ABV.

The new variant will be rolled out to pubs and bars in March.

Spiders first appeared back in 2013 with the launch of a tequila cider, Manzana Loca, from drinks distributor Hi-Spirits. Last year the UK company SHS Drinks introduced Orwell’s, a 5.5% ABV amaretto-flavoured cider, combining two drinks that are very popular among the cool crew.

Buoyed by spiders’ initial success, marketers believe the category will be worth GBP 50 million in the UK alone by 2018.

“Magners has been at the forefront of cider innovations since it revolutionised the cider category in the nineties with its over-ice serve, and today we are introducing another game changer, Magners with Irish Whiskey,” the head of C&C’s customer marketing, Ed Shoebridge, was quoted as saying.

Cider manufacturers are clearly following in the footsteps of drinks companies which have been flogging flavoured vodkas for decades. But drinks companies seem to have come to realise already that there are only so many flavours that customers really like.

In December last year, Diageo warned that consumers seem to suffer from what they funnily called “flavour fatigue”, meaning that some flavours did not reach forecasted sales levels.

Cider manufacturers have been warned not to overdo it.