19.11.09
- THE DELIA EFFECT IS STOUT -
Waitrose announces today that it has seen its strongest sales ever of stout with figures up more than 25 per cent year on year and almost forty per cent week on week. The supermarket is putting this down to the Delia Effect.
Stout is one of the key ingredients in Delia’s recipe for Traditional Christmas Pudding and sales of stout have been rising steadily since her new book Delia’s Happy Christmas went on sale four weeks ago.
It is the year on year trend that is most interesting as it shows that more and more of us are going back to tradition and doing it ourselves. Buyers are expecting this trend to continue in the run up to Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent which is traditionally the day to stir and steam your festive pudding.
Before Delia’s book was launched sales of stout were static but her book seems to have reversed this trend
Neil Whelpton, Waitrose buyer for Beer and Ciders says;” These sales figures are more than just the normal Christmas effect – this is the Delia Happy Christmas effect as it seems more and more of us are turning to making our own festive puddings.”
Waitrose is also seeing big increases on other key festive ingredients such as mincemeat and chestnuts up over 25 per cent and mixed fruit and raisins up over 60 per cent.
Stout is a specialist variety of 'Porter' named after the porters who worked on London's docks, who favoured the drink over other ales - a dark beer made from dried malt, roasted unmalted barley, hops and soft water. It is characterised by a smooth consistency with a creamy head of approximately 1-2 centimetres. 'Porter' (consumed avidly by London dock 'porters') first appeared in England in the early 18th century with the introduction of hops from the Netherlands (see related article: 'The History of Beer'). Porter became very popular in the UK and was linked closely to the advent of mass produced beers and the spread of the 'ale house'. The term 'stout', meaning sturdy, thickset or strong, was applied to the strongest tasting porter beers, that were developed in the late 18th century. Although Porter beers, in general, lost favour as 'pale ales' (such as bitters) gained in popularity, stout has continued to be popular in Britain and throughout the world to the present day.
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