The cider capital of Britain has relocated from the West Country to Tyneside, according to a new survey.

Sales figures from supermarket Tesco reveal that drinkers in the North-East are shunning their traditional Newcastle Brown Ale in favour of the fizzy apple tipple.

Stores in Newcastle, Cardiff and Birmingham sell eight times more cider than those in Bristol and the West Country, Tesco revealed.

Scrumpy's spiritual home of Somerset and Devon only just scraped the bottom of the barrel, rolling in eighth out of ten in the survey of cider-buying areas.

Tesco spokesman Jonathan Moore said: ''It seems like heresy, but people are getting bored with bland beers, and cider is the obvious alternative if you still want a long drink."

The top cider drinking areas were: 1, Newcastle and the North-East; 2, Cardiff and South Wales: 3, Birmingham and the West Midlands: 4, Leeds and West Yorkshire; 5, Manchester and west Lancashire; 6, Glasgow; 7, Liverpool and the Wirral; 8, Bristol and the West Country; 9, Ipswich and East Anglia; 10, The South Coast.