Viewers can’t get over the ‘racist gin’ in last night’s The Apprentice

After last week’s virtual reality bonanza, the latest episode of The Apprentice returned to a more traditional task: branding a new alcoholic drink.

Lord Sugar simply instructed candidates to create and market their own gin before pitching to industry professionals. Easy. No sweat. A task where nothing could go that wrong, right? Wrong.

Enter the orange-coloured ‘colony gin’. That’s the name team Frances, Trishna and Team Titan project manager Grainne came up with.

Why? Well, as Frances explained in her pitch, “at the height of the British Empire” the planet was “embracing exotic delicacies… and spices were being discovered across all of the colonies”.

But Twitter wasn’t convinced – they thought the connotations of invasion and slavery made it sound a bit, well, racist…

Orange, racist gin? Might not have got many orders but could potentially win a presidential election… #TheApprentice

— Sam Fuller (@Sam_Fuller) December 8, 2016

"Gin martini please"
"How do you like it?"
"Bright orange and with connotations of slavery, please" #TheApprentice

— Cᚱᛁᛋᛋ – The Dark Lord of Sealand (@LordImmunitas) December 8, 2016

I really fancy some of that racist gin off #TheApprentice.

— Paul Cornish (@PaulGCornish) December 8, 2016

Highlight of the evening: watching 2 women get pissed on racist gin #TheApprentice have got some "great" candidates this year!

— eliška reads (@eliska_alderson) December 8, 2016

Y'know, maybe it's right that they wanted Colony Gin to be "coloured". Go the whole racist hog, why the hell not? #theapprentice

— Stephanie Wright (@effiewright11) December 8, 2016

India is such a beautiful country #TheApprentice pic.twitter.com/9eBVFxQ73c

— Apprentice Reactions (@ApprenticeNOT) December 8, 2016

So attempting to pitch a gin with ingredients from India….they put a map of Africa on the bottle!

Go figure! ????????#TheApprentice #planks

— Helen Ibbott ???????? (@HelenIbbott) December 8, 2016

Unsurprisingly, the mistakes didn’t go unnoticed. But instead of ‘I’ve got an A* in geography’ Frances facing the finger, Lord Sugar gave Trishna the sack.

The Apprentice returns 8pm next Thursday, BBC1