A new fruit beer, named Roisin (pronounced Rosheen), has been developed by Williams Bros Brewing Company in Alloa using the tayberry, which is native to Scotland.
The fruit, which has a similar flavour to a raspberry, is added to the beer and slowly releases its natural sugars to give Roisin it's distinctive flavour and pink colour.
Tayberries are difficult to grow because they are a hybrid between brambles and raspberries, meaning that they are prickly and need to be tied down. The berries are rich in vitamin C and provide a recognised boost to the immune system.
The beer took three months to develop and Scott Williams, the drink's creator, claims the biggest problem was that he couldn't stop himself eating the tayberries!
Not everyone is a fan of the bright pink shade though. "It's a girly drink, because men who see the colour before they taste the beer develop a prejudice and pick flaws with it," says Williams, who developed the beer with his brother Bruce. "But in blind tasting, the beer received very high ratings." Williams hopes that the pink colour will appeal to the gay market and believes the beer's dry taste may be a hit with wine drinkers.
As there is only a limited supply of tayberries, the brothers have also been working on non-alcoholic strawberry and gooseberry ginger beers, which will be launched in September. Although more tayberries are being planted, it will take two years before they are ready to harvest. However, Williams claims there is enough to supply current demand.
Britvic is another drinks firm facing an ingredients shortage, in this case due to adverse crop conditions in Equador - the source of passion fruit concentrate, the core ingredient in its orange and passion fruit J2O.
Due to an insect plague and poor weather, the next crop of passion fruit won't be available until September. In the meantime, Britvic is increasing supplies of the rest of the J2O range.