How Do You Like Them Apples?

Walk into a British pub and order a pint bottle of Magners Original — a premium cider brewed by Ireland's C&C; Group — and be ready to cough up the princely sum of $7 to $8. That's as much or more than you'd pay for any other cider or beer on offer. But price be damned, say British drinkers, who are acquiring a growing thirst for ciders in general, and premium ones in particular. Cider consumption in Britain jumped 35% last year — an increase analysts have dubbed the Magners effect. That's a tribute to a brand that has reinvented the...