LENDING its iconic red T to Scotland's biggest music festival and a series of mid-nineties adverts famously lampooning chauvinsim, sadism, feminism and masochism, a pint of Tennent's lager is probably as quintessentially Scottish as whisky or Irn-Bru.
However, the drink was once an internationally coveted brand exported to far-flung corners of the globe including Cuba, San Francisco, Melbourne, Mauritius and South Africa.
Now the brewery is aiming to raise awareness of that heritage.
A crate of Tennent's Original Export – a formula of the lager mimicking the company's earliest 19th-century brews sold overseas – was "shipped in" to the banks of the Clyde in a wooden crate to launch the start of the campaign last week.
The crate conceals a secret bottle bar that is set to tour Scotland throughout the summer and will showcase an archive of recently unearthed old photographs, postcards and maps detailing the beer's one-time global dominance.
Established in 1740, Tennent's grew to become the world's largest exporter of bottled beer in the 1800s when its export brew was a bestseller in more than 40 different countries on every continent.
The archive has compiled a world map showing Tennent's hot spots in Chile and Japan, India and Saudi Arabia; a collection of international beer mats emblazoned with the giant red T; and the itinerary of lucky Tennent's salesman James Marshall as he embarked on a year-long tour of the Americas between 1875-76, pitching the Scottish lager to markets from Montreal in Canada to the tip of South America.
The unveiling of the crate coincides with the launch of a television advertising campaign featuring Tennent's founder Hugh Tennent and his trusted sidekick Barnes, this time on an epic global adventure experiencing the delights of Hugh's Original Export.
The intrepid duo is pictured scaling jungle mountains, trekking through the desert and encountering exotic customs and characters as they go, all the while enjoying the taste of Tennent's Original Export.
Tennent's has recently revived its export trade, with the brand growing in the key markets of Canada, Ireland, Australia and Italy with further expansion into other markets planned for this year.
Bottling of the product will take place at the £4 million Tennent Caledonian bottling line, opened at Wellpark in Glasgow's east end earlier this year.
Steve Annand, commercial managing director of Tennent Caledonian, said: "This is a premium lager that is made right here in Glasgow with the best Scottish ingredients but one that also has an incredible global heritage at its core.
"We're hoping to have a lot of fun taking Tennent's Original Export out to Scottish drinkers over the summer, making them proud that the local brew has done so well over the years across the globe."
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