Fentimans Victorian Lemonade

Who is to argue what Victorian lemonade actually tastes like? Is there anyone out there that has survived the Victorian period that can tell me? At first sight, Fentiman’s Traditional Victorian Lemonade looks like an inspiring choice for an alternative cool drink perfect for summer days. It looks interesting because in the cooler store in my local Co Op supermarket, you can see bits floating around at the bottom and clear as crystal or a summer’s day, depending on how you see it, it looks like a bottle that definitely needs shaking before it comes alive. It was also a runner up in BBC’s Good Food Awards. So you can imagine I was poised to experience something out of the ordinary.

My Price & About The Product

Initially I discovered Fentimans drinks in 2004 and through the years if I see most of their drink varieties on sale, I do try to buy them if they are available. A 275ml bottle used to cost £1-45 but now 8 years down the line in 2012, a glass bottle of this drink will cost on average 91p to £1-19, making it ever so cheaper than the price I used to pay.

Fentimans have been making (or brewing it according to them) botanical beverages for almost 100 years, established in 1905 no less. Pass the Bach Remedy then! Juniper and something called “Speedwell,” have been added, extracts of which I am led to believe could well be classed as herbals.

Fentimans make other products too, including Dandelion & Burdock, Ginger Beer, Curiosity Cola, Shandy Beer, Seville Orange Jigger and this product.

The Packing & The Promise

The bottle has a glorious old charm to it, as the bottle is suitably conservative given the product’s traditional preparation as well as the fact that you can literally hold it within the palm of your hand. I do like the glass bottle a lot as it reminds me of old style bottles of beer and the like, even if it is clear glass that has been used and not darkened glass.

The label on the neck of the 275ml glass bottle shows a wolf like dog (it is Fentimans label) and underneath this, the word “Fentimans” in capital letters, yellow against a blue background. Travel further down to the main label of the bottle and you will find yourself looking at a lemon drink that has no less than 0.5% alcohol by volume. It’s up to you to decide whether you would ultimately give this drink to a child then, but I wouldn’t with the alcohol content.

It is supposed to be a “fermented botanical lemon drink with ginger and herbal extracts,” or so the small print says and then in even smaller letters above the product claim, it states the alcohol. You can imagine the fun and games kids would have if they got their mitts on this, wouldn’t you? Around the middle of the rim of the bottle, the user will be able to see baked on letters similar to bottles of old beer, with the words, “Botanically Brewed” – as if to prove a process has actually taken place.

The bottle has a screw down lid catch similar to beer bottles, but you don’t actually need a ring pull mechanism lever to open it. A quick turn with the fingers and admittedly that it may be a bit sore; you can actually prise the lid off the bottle. Top marks for ingenuity there –you don’t actually need to bring a bottle opener with you or buy one if you see this product in your local supermarket.

The Scent and Look

The trouble is, I don’t know quite what to make of this product. It smells lovely and fresh, able to pick up the fresh lemon, ginger and juniper.

However for many years during hot summers, I was used to my mum and my gran before her, making up glass bottles of home made lemonade; crushed fresh lemons whizzed up in a blender and plenty of sugar and water conjuring up something that looked a little less like clear artificial mass produced lemonade and more to the sight of Robinson’s Barley Water. This liquid looks similar but it is only within the look that you could be mistaking it for true home made lemonade.

The Taste & Downsides

I’d advise to chill the drink for a day at least in the fridge to get the fresh pungent promise of lemon, (because I first tried this product lukewarm and immediately spat it out – it did not impress at all) On first tasting and once the lid has been screwed off, I can smell lemon and...well that’s about it. Having grown up in a household where ginger is continually used in tea and home made marmalades and chutneys I can’t detect ginger, at least not in the aroma section of this product.

So I am prepared to take a step into this unknown product and as I swig from the bottle like a happy old drunk, I suddenly find myself lip smacking because this is really sour! Even when it’s chilled! Oh and here’s the carbonated water as it swirls around my mouth but there’s hardly any sugar, a fact made more obvious that by the time I’m finished this bottle there’s nothing clinging to my teeth. As for the ginger I can feel my throat warming up but the lemon is really quite outstandingly horrible!!

How so? Well traditional lemonade for my pallet has to have enough lemon to satisfy me. I don’t mean Fairy Liquid moments where I’m constantly battling with chemically reared lemon additives and that horrible limey after taste. No, on the contrary I love lemons to pass over my tongue, backwards and forwards like an egg in a drawer, pushing out its tartness to all corners of my mouth; cracking up and exploding like an explosion of citrus fireworks going off. For me, that’s the truth of a real lemon. Here Fentimans actually put one and half lemons in each 275ml bottle. What a shame then that I can’t actually detect this.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s no chemical aftertaste here, no Fairy Liquid moments at all but it’s just something I wasn’t expecting. The thought of fresh lemons is daunted by the over bearing addition of ginger in its taste. You realise this by the fact that one mouthful can produce such startling effects; allow for example, the juice to swirl around your teeth, tongue and gums without swallowing and you will see what I mean. There’s the lemon but its cut short by cutting sharp overtones of ginger.

As for the alcohol content? Well I can taste this and don’t blame me if I have a sensitive pallet but it suddenly begins to taste like an alco-pop; I can taste the undertone of dulling alcohol. If the product didn’t have so much ginger in it, I’d swear I was drinking lemon flavoured Hooch!

Final Thoughts

Well, if you have a pallet for lots of ginger and sour lemons then this could well be the perfect drink for you, but I doubt it will refresh the pallets of many who are sweating it out in this hot weather. Fentimans Victorian Lemonade is certainly an acquired taste. Thanks for reading! ©Nar2 2012

Fentimans Limited
90 Grey Street
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE1 6AG

www.fentimans.com