Buckfast is a tonic wine that’s caffeinated and allegedly has supernatural properties. It is made by J. Chandler & Company in Great Britain, under a license granted by Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England. This fortified wine has pure caffeine added to it and is now marketed as a tonic.

This product was originally sold as a medicine and the phrase “Three small glasses a day, for good health and lively blood” was used to tout its health benefits. This product contains 15% alcohol and about a cup of black tea’s worth of caffeine (30 mg) in the UK version of the recipe, and 14.8% alcohol and about 60mg of caffeine in the Republic of Ireland version.

However, both versions are celebrated with their own holiday. A day that is known as World Buckfast Day that’s observed on the second Saturday of May.

The History Of World Buckfast Day

Buckfast is a traditional recipe of French Benedictine monks at Bukfast Abbey. They first made the tonic wine during the 1880s and was originally sold as a medicine, as stated in our introductory paragraph for this article.

During the 1920s, the Abbey lost its license to sell its wine, so wine merchants had been allowed to distribute the wine on their behalf. Today, Buckfast is distributed by J. Chandler & Company in Great Britain, Richmond Marketing Ltd in Ireland, and James E McCabe Ltd in Northern Ireland.

Although this holiday is known as World Buckfast Day, it’s mainly observed by people living in the United Kingdom.  Buckfast isn’t available in the United States, so this holiday is unlikely to be observed by Americans. However, this holiday is also observed in Australia and the British Virgin Islands.

Observing World Buckfast Day

This day can be observed by learning more about Buckfast and its long history, and by using Buckfast to make a variety of different cocktails. Although we won’t bore anyone with recipes for Buckfast cocktails, we will list some of the names of the ones we’ve heard about.

Some of the cocktails we want to talk about include the Buckfast Daiquiri, Super Cheeky Vimto, Bucky Martini, and the Buck Bomb! Fans of this alcoholic beverage can spread the word about this holiday using the hashtag #WorldBuckfastDay on social media.