Bring back cavan cola council seek meeting with finches

- Jenny McGovern - 

A campaign to bring back Cavan Cola in time for the Taste of Cavan 2015 moved a step closer to reality this week after the committee tasked with organising the food festival confirmed that they will make an approach to the company that bought out the brand in the ’90s. The co-ordinator of the festival said they are to seriously examine the feasibility of producing the popular beverage if even only for a limited period.
The confirmation came this week after a bid by this newspaper online last Thursday to put some fizz back into the dormant 'Bring Back Cavan Cola’ campaign. Almost 120,000 people have been reached by the Facebook post since then with the story attracting media attention from RTÉ, thejournal.ie and broadsheet.ie
Paddy Connaughton, head of Community and Enterprise in Cavan County Council, spoke to the Celt early on Monday morning. “We have seen the response to the 'Bring Back Cavan Cola’ campaign, it has been phenomenal. We will be making contact with Finches in the next few days to see if we can arrange a meeting, it would be a fantastic boost to get it back.”

Celebrity endorsement
The campaign has already garnered celebrity endorsement with The Strypes, actor Brian F O’Bryne, Kevin McGahern from Republic of Telly and Damien O’Reilly from RTÉ all supporting the Celt’s call.
It’s not the first time that The Strypes have been named in connection with Cavan Cola. During their hometown gigs in 2013, local artist Jane McCormick designed graphic tee shirts for the gig depicting a Warhol-esque array of Cavan Cola bottles.

'Blown away’
Linda O’Reilly, editor of The Anglo-Celt, said the paper was blown away by the response to its Facebook post floating the idea of bringing back the beverage for Taste of Cavan. “We always knew that Cavan Cola was popular but the reaction on our Facebook page has been incredible - reaching more than 117,000 people and still climbing. The campaign to bring back Cavan Cola has been going, on and off, for several years now. There’s nothing new in that but it was the Celt’s idea to attempt to bring back the beverage for Taste of Cavan 2015. It’s very exciting now that the organising committee for the festival are looking seriously at it,” she said.
The campaign is also set to feature on RTÉ’s Countrywide programme this Saturday. Reporters from the show visited the county town on Thursday in an attempt to get to the bottom of what is so special about Cavan Cola?
Originally Cavan Kola with a 'k’, the soft drink was produced by Cavan Mineral Water Ltd in Cavan Town. It was introduced in 1948, and was sold in 250ml and 710ml bottles in shops and pubs in counties Cavan, Monaghan, Sligo, Leitrim, Louth and Meath.

The company was owned and managed by the Coulter family, founded by John Coulter and John McShane in 1927. At its peak, the company employed over 45 people in the 1970s. Cavan Cola went national in the early 1990s but in 1995, the family-run Cavan Mineral Water Ltd was taken over by Finches, who began phasing out both Cavan Cola and its sister product, an alcopop called Mug-Shot. By 2001, Cavan Cola had disappeared from most shops, even in County Cavan where it once outsold international brand 'Coca Cola’.

Distinctive taste
The taste was described as being slightly sweeter than Coca-Cola, with a slightly liquorice flavour. The dark cola had a frothy, burnt, brown head when poured.
A campaign to 'Bring Back Cavan Cola’ was launched in 1997 by Conor Lynch from connector.ie. It gained thousands of followers on social networking sites Facebook and Bebo at the time and gained wide media attention, local and national, including from the BBC.
Local company Wordbird.ie have also designed posters depicting the famous bottle in various guises; while Virginia based company Cavan Tees have also designed 'Cavan Cola’ tee shirts.

Ingredients banned?
The majority of locals have responded with enthusiasm to the possible comeback, though some believe it would be impossible to replicate the authenticity of the taste, claiming that some of the ingredients used in the original recipe are now banned.

On display in town
A quick browse through the pubs of Cavan Town found only two with Cavan Cola bottles on display. Many have no doubt seen the eight bottles in a crate adorning a shelf in The Black Horse. Although the contents of the bottles expired in 1992, such is the allure of the 'black stuff’ that the bottles have been glued to the crate and the crate nailed to the shelf.
Meanwhile, The Top of The Town pub has four bottles on display behind the bar still sealed and wrapped in protective cling-film - the most impressive of which is the huge 710ml glass bottle.
Pub owners Marion and Seamus Smith told the Celt that the bottles are a good talking point. “Lot’s of people notice them, it always starts a discussion about how great it was. The big bottle was the original recipe, it had a big head on it like a pint of Guinness.”
When asked if they’d ever consider selling the bottles, Marion replied: “No way, it’s a piece of history, a man once came in here looking to buy it for his wife who used to drink it as a child but we had to turn him down.”