Top 10: Where are they now?

From ill-conceived brand names to impractical containers, dozens of drinks have fallen out of favour for all kinds of reasons over the years and made their way to the drinks graveyard in the sky.

Dozens of once hailed global drinks have fallen foul of changing tastes, budgetary cuts or simply their own misfortune over the years.

In the name of nostalgia, the drinks business team trawled through its collective memory to come up with some of the world’s best known drinks which have disappeared from the market.

Some might remind you of a long lost favourite beverage or spark a long forgotten memory from the dim and distant 80s, while others might be best off forgotten all all together.

Scroll through to see some of our most memorable demised drinks brands… 

Are there any we have missed? Leave a comment at the bottom of this article.

Penka vodka, Diageo

In 2005 Diageo spent an enormous amount of its marketing budget on preparing for the launch of a premium Polish vodka, Penka, under its Smirnoff brand.

Unfortunately for the global drinks brand a translation check wasn’t made on exactly what Penka (пенка) meant in Russian which carries the unfortunate definition of “skin; scum, foul film or slime that forms atop a liquid”. Not the most appealing description for what could have been a top performing premium vodka.

To make matters worse the urban dictionary defines Penka as a Spanish insult meaning “lazy, slut, whore.”

The request for the Penka trademark was “abandoned” in 2007.

Lutomer Laski Riesling

Lutomer Laski Riesling was a medium sweet white wine and the UK’s best-selling wine brand in the early 80s.

The Slovenian-made wine is still available but goes by the name Lutomer Laski Rizling because the grape variety used by the Lutomer winery is not that of the famous Riesling of Germany and Alsace, and therefore cannot be labelled Riesling. It is actually made from the totally unrelated Welschriesling grape.

Barossa Pearl

Barossa Pearl was a sweet, semi-sparkling wine brand launched in Australia in 1956 by former Orlando Wines director Colin Gramp. The frizzante-style was made using white table grapes fermented in pressure-controlled vessels at the company’s Barossa winery and was credited with bringing a generation of beer drinkers into the wine category. However Barossa Pearl’s sales eventually declined and production was stopped in the 70s. In 2012 Orlando Wines said it was considering re-introducing the 50’s sparkler but the plan has, as yet, not materialised.

Ripple

Ripple was a fortified, lightly-carbonated sweet wine cooler produced by the the Californian E&J Gallo Winery between 1960 and 1984. Its light and fizzy nature was an attempt to capture the youth market and novice drinkers who perhaps did not like the taste of alcohol or wine. TV and radio advertisements branded it a “new drink for lively people”.

The 11% drink gained popularity among college students but was pulled from production in the mid 80s with little explanation as to why.

Surviving bottles are extremely rare with unopened bottles, originally sold for $1, valued at between $150 and $200.

Zima

Zima, a lightly carbonated, citrus-flavoured alcopop, was released by the Coors Brewing Company in 1993 and marketed as an alternative to beer. Its release aimed to build on the popularity for alcopops throughout the 90s with advertising campaigns carrying advertising slogans such as “a truly unique alcohol beverage” and “Zomething different”.

Coors gambled $50 million on marketing Zima in its first year and sold 1.2 million barrels at its peak in 1994. Zima Gold – an amber-coloured beverage that promised a “taste of bourbon” – was released in 1995 but disappeared within a year. In the late 2000s Zima was marketed in three additional flavours; citrus, tangerine, and pineapple citrus, followed by black cherry and green apple flavours. However in 2008 MillerCoors announced it had decided to discontinue Zima.

Watneys Party 7

The impossible to open Watney’s Party Seven draught bitter was a staple requirement of any UK party throughout the 1970s. The tin held an impressive seven pints but disappeared from production in the 1980s.

Launched in the 1960s, Watney’s Party Seven was brewed by Watney Combe & Reid, a successful London brewery which reached its peak in the 1930s. The smaller Party Four (four pints in a can) had been available for sometime before the Party Seven was launched in 1968.

Its demise was accelerated by the arrival of plastic bottles and ring-pull six-packs.

Hirondelle

Hirondelle was the toast of the budget wine elite during the 70s retailing at £1.79 a bottle in the year 1979. The makers of this Italian white table wine, which masqueraded under a French name, rather dubiously never named the grape variety from which it was made. Based on its sweet taste it was likely to be a Muscat, or a blend of.

Double Diamond

Shakers Vodka

SHAKERS VODKA

Shakers Vodka, the Minnesota-made vodka brand, looked on track to make waves in the vodka market before its parent company, Infinite Spirits Inc, filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

Its brand and equipment was later auctioned off and the dormant brand’s trademark is now believed to be owned by California’s E. & J. Gallo Winery

Infinite Spirits Inc., which made Shakers, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January, and was founded by October 2001 by five people who also founded Pete’s Wicked Ale.

Hofmeister

Hofmeister was a 3.2% abv pale lager produced by Scottish Courage from the 1980s to 2003.

The brand was well-known for its throughout the 1980s for its advertisements featuring George, a bear sporting a shiny, yellow jacket and pork pie hat whose slogan was “follow the bear.”

The brand was axed in 2003 due to declining sales of 47% year on year.

Hofmeister was said to have suffered from the explosion in premium beers such as Carlsberg, Fosters, Stella and other imports.