I accepted the challenge set down by my friend Stu, after he read my post about my world famous creation, the Coke Float.  He is from Nottingham UK, not too far from the birthplace of Irn-Bru and, as I found out, the only place in the world where you can find this bizarre but beloved beverage in its native habitat.

What is Irn-Bru?  Only the third most popular soft drink in the UK, just behind the international juggernauts Coke and Pepsi.

It has been made in Scotland for over a century and is available internationally, but not necessarily in your corner store.  You have to know a guy.  Preferably one who rrrrolls his arrrrrs.

It’s pronounced Iron Brew, geddit?  Apparently that is the original spelling, but in 1947 the British government was threatening to enforce truth in advertising, and since the soft drink was not actually brewed, they fudged with the name.  There really is iron in it, though.  But don’t worry, so does breakfast cereal and that hasn’t killed you yet.  (Seriously, there are iron filings in breakfast cereal.)

It wasn’t easy, but I tracked down some Irn-Bru so I could repeat my Coke Float experiments.  Okay it was a five second Google search, but just because it was easy for me doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard for Google.

“Will you shut up already,” I hear you grumble, “and just tell us what on God’s Green Earth does this stuff taste like?”  Don’t worry, I was getting to that.

The taste of Irn-Bru is unique in my vast soda experience: sodas from around the world and various combinations at the D-I-Y soda fountain.   It is sweet and fruity, but strong… kind of antiseptic, like cough drops.  I rather like it.

There is indeed a hint of orange flavor.  Well duh, you say, it is colored orange, but think about that a moment: when flavor and color are mostly artificial, if they coincide it is probably coincidence.

Plus, I was watching a show on History Channel that showed how our perception of flavor is biased by the color of whatever we stick in our mouths.  As proof, the guy tasted orange-colored apple juice and he thought it was orange juice.  Go figure.

So that means if I hadn’t seen the bottle before I took a sip, I might have thought it tasted like watermelon or kumquat.  Oh well.  I’ll stick with “sweet antiseptic orange”.

Anyway, back to the experiment.  Just as I used Coke to cover the taste of artificial sweeteners in diet colas, I thought to use Irn-Bru to cover the taste of the artificial sweetener in diet Irn-Bru.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get diet Irn-Bru.  Apparently it does exist, but the distributor in the USA doesn’t distribute it.  That makes him an oxymoron to me.

Thus I decided to use compatible diet sodas that I could get locally.  Given that there is no soda like Irn-Bru around here, this posed a special challenge.  I settled on a half dozen diet sodas that also averred fruitiness.

Warning: Just like last time — Do not try this at home!  Soft drinks are a carefully balanced combination of exotic colors and flavors that come from at least as intriguing chemicals.  Mixing them can cause unwanted effects.  Irn-Bru in particular is dangerous with a long and checkered history.  Apparently that’s how Braveheart got the blue face.

On with the science!

Conclusion:

Irn-Bru makes a pretty good mixer for fruity drinks.  Goes best with lemony flavors.  Cranberry was a close third.  Incompatible with orange and grapefruit.  Violates cherry.

And yes, I know cranberry is a berry not a fruit, but since berries are fruits, it’s still a bloody fruit.