A&G Barr were initially formed in 1875 by Robert Barr who started the business in Falkirk, Scotland. In 1887 a further factory was opened in Glasgow by his son Robert Fulton Barr and this factory was later taken over by his brother Andrew Greig Barr from which the current company takes its' name. In 1901 both businesses jointly introduced the world to Irn Bru. The phonetic spelling of the drink was brought after concerns over regulatory changes to food labelling. There are several other popular drinks associated with the company perhaps the other most common being Tizer. In Scotland where Irn Bru is known affectionately as our other national Drink 4 litres are sold every second.

The packaging of the Irn Bru brand has always been that of a bright orange and blue, this changes ever so slightly in the diet version where the actual label has been changed from orange to silver, otherwise everything is the same as the original. This is very similar to the tactics used by Coca Cola.

Irn Bru is a hard tasty to describe, but I guess fruity is the best one can ever hope to accurately use, since the recipe has been a secret since in inauguration some 108 years ago. Finding in hard to differentiate between the different flavours one gets when drinking Irn Bru is n surprise when you consider that according to the website 32 flavours are used in the process. The diet version, which this review is about, doesn't really taste any different from the full sugar version. The orange colour drink has through its history had some truly excellent advertising strategies one being in reference to its colour. In the 70's - 80's its famous slogan apart from being our other national drink was. " Made in Scotland from girders" in the 90's you may recall the famous snowman and the voice of Aled Jones, but it is the latest series of hilarious adverts that had increased the sales of this rather nice drink.

Irn Bru is available in 330ml cans, 500ml contour bottles, 1ltr bottles and the large 2ltr bottles and is priced very similar to that of other leading brands i.e. Coke and Pepsi, for me though Irn Bru is a little sweeter than these brands and it is fro this reason that I only drink it now and then, I do find that it clags my mouth a bit a though I've never heard anyone else comment on this it has a habit of repeating itself later on in the day, and that is something which also puts me off.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the flavour, it is strange when you have a carbonated drink and can't actually tell what flavour it is, but for all that it is pleasant reasonably priced and up here north of the border it is indeed our other national drink. It is extremely popular as a mixer with vodka in particular. I shall be having some soon and when I do I will be making sure it is well chilled since it is then that I feel you've got a better chance of guessing a few of the 32 flavours.