Brits now boozing like they do overseas with ‘vacation beer’ taking on UK

A beer Brits have loved to swig on holiday for years is now taking over the UK and holidaymakers back home are loving it.

When it first hit Tesco supermarket shelves last year, Cruzcampo was probably only known in Britain to those who’ve quenched their thirst with it in 30c heat. Given it’s Spain’s favourite lager and just how much we love Spain, Brits have had their fill of the stuff when ordering a cerveza.

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It turns out, swathes of lotioned-up, swimwear-clad Brits have loved what’s passed their lips while basking in heat practically alien in these parts.

“We used to get a lot of tweets coming in asking ‘when are you going to launch Cruzcampo in the UK?’,” Heineken UK’s Head of Media Joanna Dring said. She added: “So there is definitely this want for it.”

Whether it’s the taste of the beer or the relaxed holiday vibes Brits associate with it, since arriving on our shores, Cruzcampo has gone down a storm. So successfully in fact, bosses have been blown away by how many pints have been sunk in the UK and attribute it to those chasing a taste of Spain.

Not least because we hadn’t been peppered with marketing until its new Choose to Cruz TV advert which football fans may have caught a glimpse of during this week’s Champions League matches.

Joanna explained nearly 10,000 pubs already serving Cruzcampo in Britain is testament to its popularity. She said: “Brits want this drink, you know, it’s blown our expectations.”

Commenting on the beer’s success over here, Cruzcampo’s UK Senior Brand Manager, Grace Daley told the Daily Star: “Our rate of sales is ahead of our competitors so people are drinking it and enjoying it.

“And that’s why it was important we brought the Sevillian way of life back as well and hopefully through the ad that’s what you see. And that more relaxed way of living is something that people will relate to with their holidays and why it’s important that we bring that through.”

Grace’s team believe it’s those Brits who want to drink and subsequently feel like they’re in Spain has “played a big factor”.

“We know that Spain is the number one holiday destination for UK tourists and we know that when we get back from our holiday, there is nothing better than finding that the holiday spirit back in the Great British pub,” Grace said.

“Given the boom in Spanish beer, we’re happy we were able to give the people what they wanted with a genuinely authentic Spanish lager.”

“The consumer reaction has been amazing, we have people constantly liking, commenting, sharing asking for it in their pubs. I think Jo said we almost knew it would, we knew we had crafted something that would be really exciting but maybe we didn’t expect it to be as exciting as quickly because brands can take years to build.

Authentically Spanish is exactly what it is with Cruzcampo dating back to Seville 1904. The best bit? The brand was launched by British brothers Thomas and Robert Osborne who wanted to brew something perfect for warm climates.

Grace added: “One of the many great things about Seville is guaranteed sunshine and warmth, pretty much all year round – sadly, here in the UK, we have to make do with slightly more unpredictable weather so we don’t have the same challenge with pints getting hot in our hands.

“Plus, here in the UK, we love a pint – pints and pubs go hand in hand.”

So now we have the Spanish beer, when’s the weather coming?

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