The Prime Minister has risked the wrath of Mancunians by snubbing one of the city's best known offerings - Vimto.
Boris Johnson is in the city for Conservative Party conference where he is due to give his keynote speech on Wednesday.
During a visit to a cash and carry business today he was positioned close to a stack of Ribena and was asked whether he preferred the popular blackcurrant drink to Vimto which was invented in Manchester.
He was asked by the BBC reporter Nina Warhurst: "Crucial question for Mancunians, Ribena or Vimto?"
However he replied: "Well I grew up on Ribena."
Told that was the "wrong answer", he said: "Well I can't help.....I'm not gonna bluff.
"I'm not going to make it up on the spot to suit whatever your Vimto agenda is.
"I was nourished on Ribena and I can't deny it."
First manufactured as a health tonic in cordial form, Vimto was invented in 1908 on Granby Row in the city centre by John Noel Nichols, from Blackburn, Lancashire, a wholesaler of herbs, spices and medicines.
He saw the market opening for soft drinks due to the temperance movement and the passage of the 1908 Licensing Act.
It contained the juice of grapes, raspberries and blackcurrants mixed with herbs and spices and was initially called Vimtonic, as it gave the drinker ‘Vim & Vigour’, before the name gradually morphed and it became known simply as Vimto.
Nichols's offices became too small and he moved to larger premises in Salford, Greater Manchester, before it began to be exported and carbonated, and grew into one of the nation's most recognisable brands and also began to produce other products such as sweets later in the century.
A monument of a bottle of Vimto was installed in gardens outside Manchester University on Granby Row in 1992.
Ribena was originally manufactured by the Bristol-based food and drink company HW Carter as a blackcurrant squash after being invented by by Vernon Charley, a scientist at the University of Bristol, in 1933.
It was also initially seen as a health drink, being given to kids as a vitamin C supplement during the second world war.
After the PM's revelation lots of locals began making the same joke.
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Shaun Farrelly said on Twitter: "Boris Johnson has just lost the Mancunian vote by snubbing Vimto #vimtogate"
Gary Dawson said: "He had my support, but now must question his fitness to govern, Ribena over VIMTO, WTF."
