Snakebite no more??

So, Snakebites are history. This wonderful mixture of lager and english cider with a dash of black currant. Apparantly it drives you crazy and it’s bad for you. I guess that’s why I refrained from drinking it when I first came to UK in April 1992, not only did it look awful, it sounded gross. And people told me the sugar in the black currant made the alcohol go straight to your brain and give you a quick effect of the alcohol. (UK lager wasn't as high in alcohol as the Danish my friends drank at home, so I didn't really believe it). But I stuck with Jack Daniel´s and (Pepsi) Coke with a few slices of lemon. Yummy. Still my first choice of alcoholic drink.

When I came back to Brighton in the summer of ´92 I had my first Snakebite, and the 2^nd and 3^rd… I haven’t gone mad yet, probably cause I never drink to get drunk rather drinking cause I like the taste and the warmth of it.

At Teesside Uni we used Fosters Ice with Strongbow Ice (both about 7%) with Robson Black Currant for our own (budget) Snakebites before hitting the town. And I remember my cousin M and I making our own Snakebites when going out in Stockholm, bringing a small bottle of black currant juice with us, ordering 1 lager and 1 cider and then mixing it by the table. Those were the good old days before all cider turned sweet alcho pop. I don't think you can get English cider in bars here in Sweden anymore. Only specialised English pubs. Anyway, that was the background history.

At Firefest in Nottingham last October I noticed that it wasn’t that simple anymore. I was told it was ‘illegal’ and they weren’t ‘allowed’ mixing this maddening brew anymore. But usually, after begging and adding plenty of please they’d do it anyway. In London – at Dirty Dicks near Liverpool Street Station – it was a no with without explanation. Just no, we don’t do that. As if I’d asked for something that get me high or something illegal. I felt like an addict. Everywhere I went they said ‘no’ but then told me it’s a stupid thing and they’ve served it for 2 decades without no-one going mad (at least because of it) so what-the-hell and they’ve made me one.

Need I say Red Bull & Vodka (served basically everywhere) actually killed people?