... Straight down the end is where you find the odd stuff – Gatorade (bleuch!), Red Bull (double bleuch!) and what ho? Fentimans? Who hell he? Well, folks – I haven’t the foggiest. But a bottle of one of his mixtures (which also include ??? Cola and ??? ???) caught my eye. After picking the bottle ... Read review
Advantages: Natural ingredients Disadvantages: Not as great as I presumed it would be
...~ ~ ~
Links:
www.fentimans.com – The OFFICIAL SITE! Full of even more fortune-cookie throwaway “wisdom”, and a laughable front page that introduced “The Famous Five” Fentimans products. Of which there are four. Doh!
http://www.realfooddirect.co.uk - get yer Fentimans here!
... more
Back in the day (as far as I know), soft drinks were a simple proposition. Most of them sprang from “medicinal” products – so did cocaine, but that’s another story. The point is, these blasted sugary devils used to be *good* for us. Where did it all go wrong?
Soft drinks probably got invented through ancient civilisations mixing berries to make them taste better, or to make themselves feel better about drinking water from streams in which woolly mammoths had died. As people’s awareness of what different plants could do, they became popular drinks. Most colas were originally syrupy concoctions, added to water or soda water. But, I don’t know, they just don’t seem satisfying any more. I love Dr Pepper (hence my pseudonym), and Pepsi is a winner, but I like trying new things. With this in mind, I set out to my local Safeway for a forage.
Narrowly avoiding the tiny donuts, I breezed past the prawn cocktail crisps into the soft drinks aisle. Straight down the end is where you find the odd stuff – Gatorade (bleuch!), Red Bull (double bleuch!) and what ho? Fentimans? Who hell he? Well, folks – I haven’t the foggiest. But a bottle of one of his mixtures (which also include ??? Cola and ??? ???) caught my eye. After picking the bottle back up and getting some frozen peas on my damaged cornea, I peered out with my good eye. Seville Orange Jigger. Fruit-tastic, I needed something to calm my caffeine powered heart. And some vitamins into the bargain, fingers crossed.
99p and a few junk food products later (I was having a selfish day), I was wending my merry way back home to sample the drink and watch some trashy videos (detailed elsewhere).
SHUT UP AND TELL US ABOUT THE DRINK
Well, I can’t do both.
OH. FAIR ENOUGH. CARRY ON THEN!
So, 99p for 275ml of orangey goodness sounds a bit pricey, but a quick squizz at the bottle shows where some of the money went. It’s a traditional beer style bottle, with “botanically brewed” embossed in the glass. The top twists off like a beer bottle. This is classy pop. The labelling is subtle, in 3 colours, almost reminiscent of a Guinness label (same colour, same shape!) if it were not for the bright orange logo. Oh, and there’s a dog around the neck. More on that later.
Still not convinced 99p isn’t a rip off? Check out some of the odder ingredients:
Fermented Ginger Root Extract, Mandarin Juice, Natural Seville Orange Flavour (hmmm...is it actually FROM seville oranges or is it a mock-up?), Speedwell, Juniper.
Hold up, what the hell is Speedwell? It’s a kind of herb, don’t panic! Also, this being a fermented drink, there’s a wee amount of alcohol – not more than 0.5% by volume, it says here. So junior won’t need a stomach pump after 5 bottles, which is good to know!
A quick shake (it was full of huge orange bits – yessss!) and a twist of the cap and you’re in. Then you realise the other reason this was pricey. It is bizarre. Expecting this to taste of orange, I was instead subjected to an odd mix of ginger and herbs, with about as much orange as Kilroy after a fortnight away from his tanning booth. But it went down easier than an inner tube on a bed of nails. It smells like a fancy shampoo and to be honest it tastes like one too. Less soap, though. After I’d finished the bottle (about a minute!) I couldn’t really decide if I’d enjoyed it or not. Probably because there are no evil chemicals in it like my usual caffienated drinks. Or any caffeine, for that matter. Brain not used to natural produce… must… drink… Sunny D…
SO WHAT’S WITH THE DOG?
I’ll tell you. This is my other problem with this stuff, past my frustrating indifference to the flavour. It has a philosophy. Now, Ben and Jerry’s gets away with this because they make a superb product that everyone loves. But it’s so… irritating when people think a product can’t speak for itself. Do Ritz cheese filled crackers say “We hope you enjoy these crackers, we slapped together some mock cheese and made some incredible odd cheesy powder to put on the biscuits, so that after a few, we think you’ll agree that you can’t taste anything but our cheese for 5 hours!”? No. Although they were probably worried about people shouting “I CAN TASTE THE CHEESE!” at them.
Not happy with having gone into a reverse diatribe about what the word “jigger” means to them (“…we revived the term ‘Jigger’ meaning ‘Good Measure’. Our ‘jigger’ has a ‘good measure’ of the finest ingredients…” etc), they then harp on about the bloody dog (“…‘Fearless’, Thomas Fentiman’s prize Alsatian and our company logo, is testament to the fact that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks when it comes to producing superior refreshment…”). Balls. I realise they’re proud of their little drink making biz, I do. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF VALHALLA, IT IS A SOFT DRINK NOT A PROVERBS BOOK!
All in all, I want another bottle, but I won’t hold my breath. I don’t get suckered in to worshipping soft drinks like all you suckers. Heh heh hur---
*eyes roll back*
YES MASTER. I WILL DRINK PEPSI. COCA-COLA SUCKS A$$.
www.fentimans.com – The OFFICIAL SITE! Full of even more fortune-cookie throwaway “wisdom”, and a laughable front page that introduced “The Famous Five” Fentimans products. Of which there are four. Doh!
http://www.realfooddirect.co.uk - get yer Fentimans here!
~ Fentimans Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger ~
Now thats what I call a mouthful for the name of a drink , but just what is it I hear you say .
Well this is a fermented botanical orange drink with ginger and herbal extracts .
~ Botanical Brewing ? ~
An age old brewing process , where (in this case ) ginger roots are milled , placed into copper steam jacketed pans and left to bubble and simmer, to release all the flavours.Once completed , herbs ... ..., the original Mr. Thomas Fentimans prize Alsatian , a double winner of Crufts Obedience Test and the company logo .
The reverse label list the usual ingredients , web address etc. etc.
~ The Content ~
A mildly alcoholic carbonated orange drink , which looks slightly pale when bought , and come complete with sediment at the bottom ( the product of the brewing process and integral to its flovour ) . Shake to disperse , uncap , and drink.
First ...
CaptainKidd 29.04.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Fentimans Seville Orange Jigger
Advantages: Totally YUMMY!!!! Disadvantages: Too expensive for everyday!!
A couple of months ago, I had to go into hospital for some tests, just my usual 3 yearly investigation to make sure all is OK (I have Ulcerative Colitis).
I am required to starve for 2 days and take a Picolax, a strong laxative on the second day, so I’m obviously not at my best at this time!
Before the 2 days begin, I always pop off to Sainsbury’s to stock up on interesting drinks, I can have clear drinks, clear in this sense means ... ...upon in the drinks department a Seville Orange Jiggler. My partner and I had just returned a few weeks earlier from Seville (where interestingly there are loads of lime trees on the streets and very few orange trees, but that is another story!) So I purchased this in a sort of ‘I’m feeling sorry for myself so I’ll think about my holiday’ sort of way.
I think it was about £1.20 for 275ml – which for one portion of drink ...
pagan 15.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Fentimans Seville Orange Jigger
Advantages: Great "real" flavour and not gassy Disadvantages: Fairly expensive for a soft drink
THE FENTIMANS RANGE
I am a great fan of the Fentimans range of drinks
(they also make ginger beer, curiosity cola and victorian
lemonade). The orange jigger is my second favourite,
after ginger beer.
AVAILABLITY AND COST
I've seen the Fentiman's drinks on sale from 99p -£1.25
for a bottle. They are available from many supermarkets
(definitely Safeways and Sainsburys) and are increasingly
seen in bars and local shops. A pound for a soft
... ...and oval label
and the Fentimans logo of a dog on the neck of the
bottle. A glass bottle could be a little heavy to
lug around on a picnic but it suits the grown up
image of the drink.
ORANGE JIGGER
Shake the bottle gently before drinking to mix the
sediment and increase the flavour of the jigger.
Orange jigger has a lovely real orange taste with
a gentle fizz rather than an over-gassy sugary
flavour you get with canned fizzy orange drinks.
...
nero2 17.03.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Fentimans Seville Orange Jigger
Advantages: damn good stuff, natural ingredients Disadvantages: a bit expensive
...reviewing the last lot of FENTIMANS products I ordered, I've just got another batch of the stuff in from GOODNESS DIRECT, and among it was this one the "Mandarin & Seville Orange Jigger".
The best way to describe it I guess would be as a Posh Orangeade (or "Orange soda" as the Americans call it), as usual it's rather pricey at 90p for a 275ml bottle.
Unlike the big name equivalents such as Fanta / Sunkist / Orangina, it seems to use bitter, screw ... ...got any).
Overall, like FENTIMANS other products, it's worth a try (though personally I like the "Curiousity Cola" + the "Ginger Beer" from the same range)...... though i'd suggest having a bottle opener handy, rather than twisting the cap as it suggests on the top, as it makes your fingers bloody hurt if you try opening it that way. ...
duck1979 27.04.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Fentimans Seville Orange Jigger
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by Thomas Fentiman who founded the company in 1905.
Fearless won prizes at Crufts for the obedience test on two occasions and Thomas loved Fearless so much that he decided to have an image of his head made into the company logo.
Other drinks made by Fentimans are: Curiosity Cola, Dandelion & Burdock, Mandarin and SevilleOrangeJigger, Fentiman's Traditional Shandy and Victorian Lemonade. ...
Advantages: The ne plus ultra of cola drinks Disadvantages: "Exclusive", i.e. expensive and semi-elusive
, but then like anything in Waitrose, I'm paying for quality, which I have to keep chanting like a mantra whenever I see Rory McGrath at the next checkout). And I've rarely seen it (or any other Fentiman's product) sold anywhere else; if interested, you can peruse their website for stockists (http://www.fentimans.com/findus.php).
Speaking of "other Fentiman's product", they also manufacture 1) SevilleOrangeJigger (which I don't like as a drink, but I do love as a name for something), 2) Victorian Lemonade (far more kick to it than an ordinary version, it would reduce the R Whites Secret Lemonade Drinker to tears), 3) Shandy (supposedly the only brewed shandy, never had it, can't comment), 4) Dandelion & Burdock (also never had, because I think D&B is plain wrong) and 5) Ginger Beer (which tastes very nice, but it's not my favourite ...
Advantages: Brewed with natural ingredients Disadvantages: A lillte more expensive that regular cola's
stores are a good bet, especially in the north east.
As for price - the most I've paid is £1.50 (in that first cafe) and the least was 0.69p when Safeway's had a special offer. Normal supermarket RRP seems to be about 99p, so it's a little more expensive than the regular brands, but I think it's well worth it. You can also order online from www.realfooddirect.co.uk at £1.18 (minimum order 12 bottles)
There's a bunch of other stuff in the range too - a Dandelion and Burdock the the husband loves (Yeuch!!) a traditional lemonade, a ginger beer, a shandy and SevilleOrangeJigger - also highly recommended!!
The website is www.fentimans.com. Happy hunting! ...
