Irn-Bru

Is that not a Tennent's lager can and a half-empty bottle of Irn-Bru?

What next? A stag weekend on Kilimanjaro? | Kevin McKenna 2011

Though the family recipe will remain the same, the tasteless dye that gives Irn-Bru its color is to be replaced.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

Alan Stuart, 60, who downs 50 cans of Irn-Bru a week, mixes the drink into popular pork sausages sold at his butcher shops in Fife.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

Those include Sunset Yellow and red Ponceau 4R, the so-called azo dyes that give Irn-Bru its hyper-orange sheen.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

The tagline: "I love Irn-Bru and so do my bitches."

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

For years, Mr. Barr prepared the secret Irn-Bru "essence" at the company's old factory in a Victorian structure that workers called "Robin's Nest."

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

At the Cumbernauld offices, Mr. Barr paged through a commemorative book filled with Irn-Bru ads, landing on a fusty, pipe-smoking old man posed next to two yellow hounds.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

Mr. Barr and the 135-year-old company his family started have built Irn-Bru (pronounced Iron Brew) into a genuine phenomenon in Scotland, where it duels with Coca-Cola to be the No. 1 soft drink and enjoys a maverick reputation, owing to its powerful taste and controversial advertising.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

The result is Irn-Bru, a glowing orange beverage spiked liberally with caffeine and sugar that is worshiped in Scotland and often belittled elsewhere.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010

A misstep would be bad news for David Shaw, a 21-year-old originally from Falkirk, who had the Irn-Bru logo tattooed on his chest.

It Isn't Iron and It Isn't Brewed, But Irn-Bru Hews to Its Orange Hue 2010