Remember Moray Cup? It's back, in beer form thanks to Brew Toon

Aah, Moray Cup, the long-lost, bright red drink of indiscernible flavour that only folk in the north-east seemed to drink.

Once popular at chippers and corner shops across the region amongst schoolkids and the hungover alike, Moray Cup has been sadly gone from our shelves since it was discontinued in 2017.

Moray Cup, back when it was on sale on a shelf. — Moray Cup, back when it was on sale. Image: DC Thomson

I have fond memories of the hyper-sweet, “fruit flavour” drink, so was delighted to hear Brew Toon from Peterhead were making their own beer version, the cheekily-named Murray Cup.

Brew Toon even recreated the iconic Moray Cup artwork, although their drinkers are actually holding glasses of the beverage in question, and not some strange yellow-coloured concoction.

But does it actually taste like the legendary Moray Cup?

I got myself a can from Westhill Service Station’s Hop Shop to try it out for myself.

Does the spirit of Moray Cup live on as Murray Cup by Brew Toon? We put it to the taste test…

For those of you unlucky enough to have never sampled the original Moray Cup drink in its heyday, the best way I can describe it is sort of sickly-sweet, and vaguely reminiscent of cherry cola bottle sweeties or Tizer.

A can pouring out the Moray Cup beer. — The Murray Cup beer poured nice and fizzy, and only slightly alarmingly red.

With the only description on the bottle being “fruit flavour”, it must have been a challenge for the Brew Toon team to try and put their finger on exactly what it was that made Moray Cup so popular in the first place.

For their own version, Murray Cup, Brew Toon has used redcurrants and Scottish strawberries, as well as delicious E124 food colouring to give it that classic radioactive red appeal.

My verdict on the Moray Cup beer from Brew Toon

Does it actually taste like Moray Cup, though?

In previous weird beer reviews, like Brew Toon’s take on Blue WKD, I had the original to compare it to, but that’s sadly impossible nowadays with Moray Cup.

The beer in a glass — I tried to have it come across in this picture, but the head of the beer was bright pink, like candy floss.

But compared to my recollections… sort of.

The problem is, Moray Cup is sort of like Irn Bru, ask 100 people what it tastes like, and you’ll get 100 different answers.

I think Brew Toon’s homage here just tastes like a really, really good fruity sour beer, that’s very heavy on the redcurrants.

It’s a damn tasty beer, and I hope they make it again — which they may very well do, after all it sold out on their web store in about an hour.

But unless you thought Moray Cup tasted of redcurrants, which I didn’t, it just misses the mark on accurately recapturing that bizarre taste of the Aberdeenshire original.

The original Moray Cup drink on a shelf — Moray Cup: Gone, but not forgotten. Image: DC Thomson

That being said, I really don’t know if anyone could brew anything closer in beer form to the classic Moray Cup drink, so a round of applause for Brew Toon for making such a fantastic beer with this totally out-there idea.

Rating: 4/5

Details:

6%ABV
It’s out of stock on the official website right now, but I got mine for £4.49 from Hop Shop Aberdeen at the Westhill Service Station
Brew Toon brewery, Peterhead
Style: Fruit Sour