Bristol drinkers are up in arms after Gaymers reduced the strength of keg Blackthorn cider from 5% ABV to 4.7% and also made it much sweeter in taste. Now, I can count the number of pints of keg cider I’ve drunk in my life on the fingers of one hand, and I doubt whether either the before or after versions had much to commend them. But it seems Blackthorn had a strong following in the West Country, and this is another example of major drinks companies ignoring real consumer preferences to make their products weaker and blander in a questionable attempt to gain a wider market. Yet the only categories in the on-trade “long drinks” market to show positive growth are cask beer and traditional cider – precisely where strong, distinctive and even “difficult” flavours come to the fore.