Fishermans Friend original lozenges

The thing that is readily available from my Dad is the product I will now review, with my son even buying him 20 packets of them as part of his Christmas box last year!

The product I will now review is - “Fisherman’s friends”.

The one’s my Dad always has to hand are the original one’s, these come in there own yellow coloured paper packet, I read a review on these yesterday saying how they didn’t have anyway of sealing, we actually anticipated this last year, with my son sewing his Grandad a custom made fisherman friends pouch!

This brand was actually invented in 1865 (or at least that’s what the official website states - www.fishermansfriends.com), my a man named James Lofthouse, to combat the problems that were brought on for the Lancashire fisherman, when fishing in freezing cold conditions, as their fishing routes often took them to the Arctic circle.

Problems included coughs, colds and many different bronchial problems, so by adding menthol and eucalyptus together, in a tablet form, these seemed to be really effective for them, so much that they soon started to refer to them as there friends!

Back to the now!

I have to say that my Dad has always suffered quite badly with acid reflux (where the stomach acid rises back up in to the gullet), so says he always a strange taste in his mouth, so I think the main draw is the strength of flavour in these.

For me, these are just the best, albeit strongest, remedy on the market, perfect for relieving a dry and tickly throat, and if sore numbing it beautifully for a little while to give you some relief.

Each tablet is a small oval shape, and a deep brown colour, nothing fancy looking about these, made for men!

There is a distinctive smell emanating from the pack, though the menthol is more noticeable at this stage than the eucalyptus.

In a pack there are around 20 sweets, which in fairness could last you a good week, never try and put two of these in your mouth at one, it feels as though your tongue is burning, so if you don’t do strong foods and flavours, these really aren’t for you.

When you first taste them it feels as though they are going to be too much for the tongue to take, persevere with them though is the tongue soon gets used to it and this is when you realise how effective they seem to be.

Not only do they sooth sore throats, but due to the menthol and eucalyptus combination, seem to also open all the airways, clearing congestion in the chest and nose too (though can I just state these will be temporary effects, though if only a reprieve when you feel rubbish due to colds and such, these offer a very welcome reprieve!).

Each tablet and it’s effects will last a good ½ hour, with there being no real restriction on amounts taken in a day, though I would find it difficult to eat them as sweets, my Dad does, and I am sure there are others out there!

There must be, on the website it states that if each Fisherman friend that was purchased on a yearly basis was laid end to end, it would be long enough to wrap a round the world four times, such is the popularity of this product!

The type I have reviewed are the “original” variety, with these being really quite the strongest one’s I had tried, though since looking on the website there is a stronger variety available (might be a bridge too far for me!), and also a plethora of other flavours too, with there being a particularly nice looking packet of cherry ones on the market, will keep my eye out for those!

Price wise these are pretty well available everywhere and range from the radius (80p a pack, I paid this in a hospital shop going into work once!), but more often around the 40p - 60p mark (Wilkinsons!).

These are very effective tablets, that I would highly recommended!

Thanks for reading x