Do you remember the “Hey…I’d love a Babycham” ad from the 70s and 80s?  Growing up then I had no idea what Babycham was, but it always seemed exotic, mysterious, cool and sexy (although still never drank it!).   However it’s only good old fashioned sweet sparkling perry that, like most commercial ciders and perrys, is probably made from just concentrate, sugar and water.  Little did we know then that it was probably the pre-curser to today’s alcopops.  However a number of craft cider producers now also make fantastic perry cider which is definitely not an alcopop – high quality 100% juice ingredients giving rise to a fantastic ‘new’ craft drink, growing rapidly in popularity.

Also a little known fact is that bottle fermentation was made possible by the British who originally started adding sugar to their ciders in the 16th and 17th centuries leaving them to ferment to form perry or cider champagne, and now developed to the sparkling drinks for the mass market we know today.  They were also able to make the glass bottles strong enough to withstand the pressure, which ultimately enabled the French to develop their mass market world wide brand of sparkling wine … champagne.

We have some great sparkling perry’s made from 100% perry pears and available to buy on the website from Tutts Clump, Gwyntt Y Ddraig and Mr Whiteheads – http://fetchthedrinks.com/shop-category/perry/