Buckfast Tonic Wine is a caffeinated alcoholic drink consisting of fortified wine with added caffeine,[2] originally made by monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. It is now made under a licence granted by the monastery, and distributed by J. Chandler & Company in Great Britain, James E McCabe Ltd in Northern Ireland,[3] and Richmond Marketing Ltd in Ireland. It is based on a traditional recipe from France. The wine's distributor reported record sales of £43.2 million as of March 2017.[4]
Despite being marketed as a tonic, Buckfast has become notorious in Scotland for its association with ned culture and antisocial behaviour.[5]
History
The wine, which is still manufactured using many of the same ingredients, is based on a traditional recipe from France. The Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey first made the tonic wine in the 1890s. It was originally sold in small quantities as a medicine using the slogan "Three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood".[6]
In 1927, the Abbey lost its licence to sell wine. As a result, the Abbot allowed wine merchants to distribute on behalf of the Abbey. At the same time, the recipe was changed to be less of a patent medicine and more of a medicated wine.[6]
The wine, which comes in distinct brands depending on the market, has achieved popularity in working class, student, and bohemian communities in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the Republic of Ireland, Buckfast is packaged in a darker bottle, has a slightly lower alcoholic strength, and lacks the vanillin flavouring present in the British version. Buckfast sold in Northern Ireland, where it has been nicknamed "Lurgan champagne", is the same as that sold in the rest of the UK.[7][8]
Versions
Buckfast contains 15% alcohol in the 750ml green-bottled UK version, and 14.8% in the brown-bottled Republic of Ireland version, which equates to roughly 11.25 UK units of alcohol.
The "brown bottle" Buckfast sold in Ireland has a caffeine content similar to an espresso coffee (60mg/100ml) and higher than Red Bull (32mg/100ml). The UK-sold "green bottle" Buckfast has a caffeine content higher than black tea but lower than coffee (37,5mg/100ml). [9][10]
Buckfast's perception as being involved with street drinking, public intoxication and anti-social behaviour has caused controversy in Scotland.
In certain parts of Scotland, Buckfast is associated with drinkers who are prone to committing anti-social behaviour when drunk, especially drinkers under 18 years old.[11][12] The drink has a very high caffeine content, with each 750ml bottle containing 281mg of caffeine, the equivalent of eight cans of cola.[13] It has been suggested that this may cause it to act as a stimulant, while removing inhibitions, self-control and a feeling of having drunk enough. Research into similar drinks have failed to find clear evidence for the latter effect.[14] A diet of four bottles a day has been described in a Scottish court as 'not conducive to a long life'.[15]
Buckfast has been viewed as emblematic of the problems of areas of Scotland suffering from deindustrialisation, such as this disused betting shop in Easterhouse.
The beverage has entered the popular lexicon with nicknames such as "Wreck the Hoose Juice",[17][18][19] "Commotion Lotion",[17][18] "Cumbernauld Rocket Fuel",[18] "Mrs. Brown",[17] "Buckie Baracas",[20] "Coatbridge Table Wine", "Jakey Juice" ,[20] and a bottle of "What the hell are you looking at?"[20] It has earned the unofficial slogan, "Buckfast: gets you F*cked, fast" [19] The drink's prominence within the "Buckfast/Buckie Triangle" – an area east of Glasgow between Airdrie, Coatbridge and Bellshill – has raised concern.[19][20][21] The glass bottle has been blamed for allegedly contributing to litter and providing drunkards with a weapon.[18][20]
Several Scottish politicians and social activists have singled out Buckfast Tonic Wine as being particularly responsible for crime, disorder, and general social deprivation in these communities. Although Buckfast accounts for only 0.5% of alcohol sales in Scotland, it is responsible for 80% of public intoxication incidents.[22][23] There have been numerous calls for the drink to be banned, either throughout the country or in certain areas or shops, made more expensive to dissuade people from buying the product, or sold in plastic bottles to reduce glassing incidents. Helen Liddell, former Secretary of State for Scotland, called for the wine to be banned.[24]
In 2005, Scottish Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson suggested that retailers should stop selling the wine. On a subsequent visit to Auchinleck within her constituency, she was greeted by teenagers chanting, "Don't ban Buckie".[25] All of these initiatives have been countered by lawyers acting for Buckfast distributors, J. Chandler & Company, in Andover.[24][26] A further consequence was that Buckfast sales increased substantially in the months following Jamieson's comments.[23]
In September 2006, Andy Kerr, the Scottish Executive's Health Minister, described the drink as "an irresponsible drink in its own right" and a contributor to anti-social behaviour. The distributors denied the claims and accused him of showing "bad manners" and a "complete lack of judgement" regarding the drink.[27] Kerr met with J. Chandler & Company to discuss ways of lessening Buckfast's impact on west Scotland but the talks broke up without agreement. Three months later, Jack McConnell, First Minister of Scotland, stated that Buckfast had become "a badge of pride amongst those who are involved in antisocial behaviour."[5] In response the distributors accused the Scottish Executive of trying to avoid having to deal with the consequences of failed social policy and the actual individuals involved in antisocial behaviour by blaming it on the drinks industry."[5]
In January 2010, a BBC investigation revealed that Buckfast had been mentioned in 5,638 crime reports in the Strathclyde area of Scotland from 2006 to 2009, equating to an average of three per day. In 2017, Scottish Police reported there had been 6,500 crimes related to the drink in the previous two years.[28] One in 10 of those offences had been violent and 114 times in that period a Buckfast bottle was used as a weapon. A survey at a Scottish young offenders' institution showed that of the 117 people who drank alcohol before committing their crimes, 43 per cent said they had drunk Buckfast. In another study of litter around a typical council estate in Scotland, 35 per cent of the items identified as rubbish were Buckfast bottles.[11][29]
In 2016, a sheriff said there was a "very definite association between Buckfast and violence" while sentencing a man for hitting a 15-year-old boy over the head with a bottle at a birthday party.[30] In January 2018, a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh heard that a man had consumed lager and a whole bottle of Buckfast before ferociously stabbing a workmate.[31]
In July 2017, the British trade magazine The Grocer reported that increased sales of Buckfast in southeast England had pushed the drink up to 91 on the UK's top 100 alcoholic brands. The increased sales followed a marketing campaign to improve the drink's image.[28]
In 2017, thousands of empty Buckfast bottles were recovered during a clean-up of the Claddagh Basin in Galway, Ireland.[32]
The monks of Buckfast Abbey and their distribution partner, J. Chandler & Company, deny that their product is harmful, saying that it is responsibly and legally enjoyed by the great majority of purchasers. They point out that the areas identified with its acute misuse have been economically deprived for decades and Buckfast represents less than one per cent of the total alcohol sales across Scotland.[33] Abbot of Buckfast Abbey David Charlesworth has said that the tonic wine his monastery produces "is not made to be abused".[34]
In February 2013, J. Chandler & Company applied to the Court of Session in Edinburgh to stop Strathclyde Police from marking bottles of Buckfast so they could trace where under-age drinkers bought them. A company spokesman complained, "This is discrimination at the highest level. Buckfast is no more involved in crime than any other brand of alcohol". A former head of the Scottish Police Federation said: "Buckfast, the distributors and the lawyers who act on behalf of the monks refuse, point blank, to take any responsibility for the antisocial behaviour that's caused by the distribution and the consumption of Buckfast. They even refuse to change the glass bottles to plastic bottles despite overwhelming evidence that large areas in play parks and certain areas in Scotland are littered with this green glass".[35][36]
In February 2014, the case was settled without any judgment being made by the court. Assistant Chief Constable Wayne Mawson of Police Scotland apologised to J. Chandler & Co for asking a shopkeeper to stop selling Buckfast and gave written undertakings not to include the product in any bottle-marking scheme, unless it has "reasonable grounds" for doing so, and "not to request licensed retailers, situated anywhere in Scotland, to cease stocking for sale Buckfast Tonic Wine".[37]
In 2016 sales of Buckfast Tonic Wine reached record yearly profits of £8.8million. The abbey trust, which is a shareholder of the Hampshire-based wine's distributor and seller, J. Chandler, gets a royalty fee for every bottle sold. Although the trust declined to release specific sales figures, it said it "strives to work with J. Chandler and Co to ensure that the tonic wine is marketed and distributed responsibly".[38]
Buckfast Day
In 2015, a "National Buckfast Day" was set up by fans to honour the tonic wine.[39] The organisers designated the second Saturday of each May National Buckfast Day. The organisers decided to rename the day World Buckfast Day for 2016.[40] By its third year, several celebratory events were held on different continents around the world.[41]
An alcopop is any of certain mixed alcoholic beverages with relatively low alcohol content, including:
Malt beverages to which various fruit juices or other flavorings have been added
Wine coolers: beverages containing wine to which ingredients such as fruit juice or other flavorings have been added
Mixed drinks containing distilled alcohol and sweet liquids such as fruit juices or other flavourings
Gin is a distilled alcoholic drink flavoured with juniper berries and other botanical ingredients.
Irn-Bru is a Scottish carbonated soft drink, often described as "Scotland's other national drink". Introduced in 1901, the drink is produced in Westfield, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, by A.G. Barr of Glasgow. As well as being sold throughout the United Kingdom, Irn-Bru is available throughout the world and can usually be bought where there is a significant community of people from Scotland. The brand also has its own tartan. It has been the top-selling soft drink in Scotland for over a century, competing directly with global brands such as Coca-Cola.
Kahlúa is a brand of coffee liqueur owned by the Pernod Ricard company and produced in Veracruz, Mexico. The drink contains rum, sugar, and arabica coffee.
Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac, later Cistercian, abbey constructed on the site of the current abbey in 1134. The monastery was largely demolished after its dissolution in 1539. In 1882 the site was purchased by French Benedictines who refounded a monastery on the site. New monastic buildings incorporated the remaining Gothic house. Buckfast was formally reinstated as an abbey in 1902. Work on a new abbey church, which was constructed mostly on the footprint of the former Cistercian abbey, started in 1907. The church was completed in 1938. As of 2020, the abbey has 13 monks.
The Coca-Cola Company's formula for Coca-Cola syrup, which bottlers combine with carbonated water to create the company's flagship cola soft drink, is a closely guarded trade secret. Company founder Asa Candler initiated the veil of secrecy that surrounds the formula in 1891 as a publicity, marketing, and intellectual property protection strategy. While several recipes, each purporting to be the authentic formula, have been published, the company maintains that the actual formula remains (allegedly) a secret, known only to a very few select employees. The claim that the recipe is only known to two (2) people and that they cannot fly on the same plane due to the chance they may die, and the recipe will become unknown, is a myth and has been fact-checked multiple times.
An energy drink is a type of functional beverage containing stimulant compounds, usually caffeine, which is marketed as providing mental and physical stimulation. They may or may not be carbonated and may also contain sugar, other sweeteners, or herbal extracts, among numerous other possible ingredients.
Lucozade is a British brand of soft drinks and energy drinks manufactured and marketed by the Japanese company Suntory. Created as "Glucozade" in the UK in 1927 by a Newcastle pharmacist, William Walker Hunter, it was acquired by the British pharmaceutical company Beecham's in 1938 and sold as Lucozade, an energy drink for the sick. Its advertising slogan was "Lucozade aids recovery". It was sold mostly in pharmacies up until the 1980s before it was more readily available as a sports drink in shops across the UK.
Vimto is a British mixed fruit soft drink containing the juice of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants, flavoured with herbs and spices. Originating in Manchester, northern England, it was first manufactured as a health tonic in cordial form then decades later as a carbonated drink, and the recipe was invented in 1908 by John Noel Nichols of Blackburn. Produced domestically by Nichols plc, it is available in cans and bottles in carbonated, still, cordial (squash), and energy forms and it has also been made into a sweet, ice lolly and other items. Vimto is traditionally most popular in the north of England and is also sold globally under license, and enjoys high popularity in the Persian Gulf countries and in The Gambia and Senegal.
A standard drink or unit of alcohol is a measure of alcohol consumption representing a fixed amount of pure alcohol. The notion is used in relation to recommendations about alcohol consumption and its relative risks to health. It helps to educate alcohol users. A hypothetical alcoholic beverage sized to one standard drink varies in volume depending on the alcohol concentration of the beverage, but it always contains the same amount of alcohol and therefore produces the same amount of drunkenness. Many government health guidelines specify low to high risk amounts in units of grams of pure alcohol per day, week, or single occasion. These government guidelines often illustrate these amounts as standard drinks of various beverages, with their serving sizes indicated. Although used for the same purpose, the definition of a standard drink varies from country to country.
Catherine Mary Jamieson is a Scottish business director, currently a director at Kilmarnock Football Club and former politician. She served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2000 to 2008. She previously served in the Scottish Executive as Minister for Justice from 2003 to 2007 and Minister for Education and Young People from 2001 to 2003. Jamieson was Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley from 1999 to 2011 and was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilmarnock and Loudoun from 2010 to 2015.
Flavored fortified wine or tonic wine is inexpensive fortified wine that typically has an alcohol content between 13% and 20% alcohol by volume (ABV). They are made from various fruits with added sugar, artificial flavor, and artificial color.
Four Loko is a line of alcoholic beverages sold by Phusion Projects of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Four Loko's recipe formerly included caffeine. Phusion operates as Drink Four Brewing Company. Four Loko, the company's most popular beverage, debuted in the United States market in 2005 and is available in 49 states, and in 21 countries including Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, The Bahamas, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, China, Canada and some countries in Europe. The name "Four" is derived from the original drink having four "key ingredients".
3 Hammers is a strong white cider made in Tiverton, Devon, England by the Aston Manor Brewery. Before 2009 it was made by the Devon Cider Company, until that company went into administration in 2009 and was taken over by Aston Manor. The cider is named after a small village near Tiverton.
West Coast Cooler is a wine cooler made from white wine and fruit flavourings. It is owned and produced by Pernod Ricard's Irish subsidiary, Irish Distillers. It has an alcohol content of 3.5%.
A caffeinated alcoholic drink is a drink that contains both alcohol and a significant amount of caffeine. Caffeine, a stimulant, masks some of the depressant effects of alcohol. However, in 2010 and 2011, this type of drink faced criticism for posing health risks to its drinkers. In some places there is a ban on caffeinated alcoholic drinks.
The 17 November 2010 United States ban on caffeinated alcoholic drinks is a ban which prevents the marketing and distribution of any prepackaged caffeinated alcoholic drink.
David Charlesworth, OSB is the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. He is a member of the Order of Saint Benedict.
Sedna was an alcoholic beverage made in Belfast, Ireland, and sold as a "tonic". In its earlier days it was made from port wine with the addition of extracts of coca leaf, kola nut and beef. From around 1923 its only advertised additive was the kola extract. The brand name was later used in Australia for a similar product, locally produced.
Alcohol in the United Kingdom is legal to buy, sell and consume. Consumption rates within the country are high among the average of OECD nations however average among European countries but consistently ranks highest on binge drinking culture. An estimated 29 million people in the United Kingdom drank alcohol in 2017.
References
↑ "Tonic Wine". www.buckfast.org.uk. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
