Babycham is as famous for its place in the history of advertising as for its sweet taste. It was cleverly targeted at women who wanted to enjoy a light drink with a touch of glamour while the menfolk downed pints, and was a marketing phenomenon in the 1960s and 70s.
Now Babycham is back in the ownership of the family that invented it in the 1950s, with production just returned to its old headquarters amid plans to give the sparkling perry a new lease of life among the sort of younger audience that has embraced cider in recent years.
The little bottles still sell, and the brand has even gained a camp, vintage mystique, but the rise of alcopops and mixer drinks has seriously challenged its position in the beverage business.
“If you were to put a Babycham and a prosecco, or even a champagne, side by side, there are an awful lot of people who would actually prefer the Babycham, because it hasn’t got that dry rasp,” said Matthew Showering, whose grandfather, the Somerset innkeeper and brewer Francis Showering, first came up with the recipe. “So it’s important to stick with that. It’s why it took off.
“We will get closer to the original production method and recipe, as some things got chiselled away for speed with mass production. And we are going towards the original look too, so we’ll have quite a retro feel which, oddly, will make it more modern.”
The Babycham legacy means a lot for the family, said Matthew Showering. “It’s very special, as it almost defines our family. It changed everything.”
The drink, concocted exactly 70 years ago, became the first alcoholic drink to be advertised on television. The enthusiastic slogan “I’d love a Babycham!” entered the language.
“We want to keep that sense of celebration about it. Back then,
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