Beer drinkers are mad for Madrí — but how Spanish is it? (2024)

‘How’s Madrí doing for you?” I asked a barman the other day. “Yeah, it’s flying out,” he replied. “They’ve had it in Spain for about five years now, and just launched it over here.”

It’s a common story you’ll hear in pubs across Britain. When lager drinkers got back to the bar after the tortured restrictions of the pandemic, this friendly-looking Spanish brand was waiting for them, as if it had always been there. The bright red roundel, featuring an illustration of a hipster-looking guy in a flat cap, is repeated on the branded, stemmed pint glass that everyone seems to be holding, evoking what the ads call “El Alma de Madrid”, or “The Soul of Madrid”.

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