Bulmers and Black

Irish cider mixed with blackcurrant cordial, transforming the crisp apple drink into a sweeter, berry-tinged refresher popular in summer months.

Bulmers and Black is an Irish pub modification that sweetens the country's most popular commercial cider with a measure of blackcurrant cordial, producing a drink whose berry sweetness moderates the apple's tartness and gives the pint a vivid purple-red color that distinguishes it visually from straight cider. Bulmers cider is produced by C&C Group at the Clonmel facility in County Tipperary — the same county in Ireland's South that grows much of the country's commercial apple crop — and has been the dominant Irish cider brand since the 1930s. Outside Ireland, the same product is marketed as Magners, the name change arising from trademark negotiations with the English Bulmers brand, which is an entirely separate company. Bulmers' signature serve in Ireland is famously over ice in a pint glass — a presentation that moderates the cider's sweetness and slows its consumption, giving it a more deliberate, sippable quality than the room-temperature pints associated with British cider drinking. Blackcurrant cordial — concentrated, sweetened blackcurrant syrup, most commonly Ribena (produced since the 1930s) in the UK and Ireland — was already a standard pub modifier for Guinness stout in the Black and Black combination, and its application to cider follows the same logic of sweetening a slightly bitter or tart base with berry fruit. The combination's visual appeal and its approachability for drinkers finding straight cider too tart made it a consistent warm-weather bar order across Ireland.