Soft Drinks Unique to British Tastes
If you travel to Britain you will note that the country does have an array of bizarre non-alcoholic beverages that are drunk regularly. Some are medicinal and others are just soda pop.
Barley water is a traditional beverage that is made by boiling washed pearl barley, straining out the liquid and then adding lemon and sugar for taste. It is based on an Ancient Greek drink that was sacred and used as cure for a number of ills including curing gout and cystitis. In Britain Barley Water is made by a company called Robinsons. It is a concentrate that is usually diluted with three to five parts cold water. It comes in orange, blackcurrant, apple, peach, pink grapefruit, strawberry and kiwi flavours. The drink also has a long association with Wimbledon and is mentioned often in the film Mary Poppins.
Bing is another popular soft drink that has a dark orange color and tastes a bit like cherryade. It is made in Folkestone Kent by the Silver Spring Mineral Water Company.
Bouvrage is a soft drink produced by Ella Drinks in Alloa Scotland that is made with raspberry juice and carbonated water. Recently they introduced a second flavour made with blackberries.
Fermented Dandelion and Burdock drink has been around since 1265. It is made from fermented herbs, tastes bubbly and has a flavour similar to root beer.
Evoca Cola tastes like Coca Cola but instead it is made with mineral water and black seed. It has been around as a natural alternative to Coke since January 2004.
Ginger Beer is also popular in the U.K. It is flavoured with ginger and sweetened with sugar or artificial sweeteners and lemon.
Irn-Bru is a carbonated soft drink often advertised as Scotland’s other national drink (other than whiskey.) It is known for its bright orange colour. It has a slight orange flavour and it Scotland it even outsells Coca-Cola. It was actually invented to quench the thirst of iron mill workers who were drinking too much beer to stay hydrated.
Also popular is J2O that is a pun on H2o and that is made from fruit juices. It is a mix of fruit and water. The standard flavours are apple and mango, apple and raspberry, papaya and peach and orange and passionfruit. The company even made a flavour to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This was apple and blueberry with diamond glitter in it.