Soft drinks that don't contain artificial sweetners

[Se7enheaven]

I feel absolutely shocking if I have anything with artificial sweetener in it. Bloating , nausea , sounds like world war 3 going on in my stomach and can last for at least 24 hrs or more. Awful stuff. Getting harder and harder to find drinks out and about without the minging stuff in it.

[donaircooleone]

Waitrose Red Grape Juice is a good alternative too!

[r3g]

TonyRPH said:

r3g said:

Did you find any winners, Tony? <snip>

Yes, a clear winner for me has been "Belvoir Fruit Farms Natural Orange Cordial".

No headaches or other side effects.

Ooh, will have to give that a try! Available in the usual supermarkets?

[RobbieTheTruth]

21TonyK said:

Ive been drinking Lidl elderflower cordial sliued with their "italian" sparkling water. Full of sugar but better than coke, trying their alcohol free lager and diluted apple as well.

I doubt it's a full sugar drink now? I'd guess per 100ml diluted, it's about 4-4.5%

Let us know.

[WelshRich]

I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners rather than suffering any I’ll effects but I’ve also noticed the range of full-fat options is dwindling. My current favourite is Fever Tree Sicilian Lemonade (it’s slightly sparkling rather than Coke style fizzy…)

https://fever-tree.com/en_GB/products/sicilian-lem...

[21TonyK]

RobbieTheTruth said:

21TonyK said:

Ive been drinking Lidl elderflower cordial sliued with their "italian" sparkling water. Full of sugar but better than coke, trying their alcohol free lager and diluted apple as well.

I doubt it's a full sugar drink now? I'd guess per 100ml diluted, it's about 4-4.5%

Let us know.

Thats a good point. Just checked and its 4.8g suger per 100ml so about 5%, diluted at 4:1 (which would be very strong) brings it down to 1%.

Feeling better already!

[.:ian:.]

Pop over to France and get some sirop like Teisseire or something own brand. At the moment they dont seem to have banned the full sugar versions, the blackcurrant one has 81g of sugar per 100ml

[ZedLeg]

WelshRich said:

I hate the taste of artificial sweeteners rather than suffering any I’ll effects but I’ve also noticed the range of full-fat options is dwindling. My current favourite is Fever Tree Sicilian Lemonade (it’s slightly sparkling rather than Coke style fizzy…)

https://fever-tree.com/en_GB/products/sicilian-lem...

The Fever tree lime soda is also amazing.

[r3g]

I was in Morries this morning and went looking for the Belvoir one as mentioned above but they didn't have it. Picked up a "Morrisons The Best Elderflower Cordial" after carefully reading the ingredients and not seeing any of the usual artificial sweetener suspects in the list. I've had a couple of pint glasses of it, diluted to the correct measurements (barely 1cm deep at the bottom of a pint glass) and it's giving me the same banging headache that I get from all the aspartame and sucralose laden crap. I don't understand it.

Here's the label : Ingredients
Ingredients
Springwater, Sugar, Elderflower Concentrate, Glucose Syrup, Fructose, Acid (Citric Acid), Flavourings, Concentrated Grape Juice, Preservative (Sodium Metabisulphite)
Dietary Information
Contains Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

I use bottled mineral water in my drinks rather than tap water.

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

TonyRPH said:

r3g said:

Did you find any winners, Tony? <snip>

Yes, a clear winner for me has been "Belvoir Fruit Farms Natural Orange Cordial".

No headaches or other side effects.

Ooh, will have to give that a try! Available in the usual supermarkets?

According to their website it's available at Sainsbury's and Waitrose.

The list of ingredients looks quite basic.

Sugar, lemon juice from concentrate 21%, orange juice from concentrate 21%, water, orange juice 8%

The Morrisons cordial you mention looks to have quite a few more ingredients.

[n_const]

.:ian:. said:

Pop over to France and get some sirop like Teisseire or something own brand. At the moment they dont seem to have banned the full sugar versions, the blackcurrant one has 81g of sugar per 100ml

Second this. Peach and grenadine are favourites in our house.

[devnull]

Nothing to add except say that I was on a plane to the US last December, and I had my first full fat US coke. My god, what a difference in taste, it took me back to my childhood.

[akirk]

Something like elderflower cordial is very easy to make yourself (when the flowers are in season) and basically has sugar / water / lemon juice and then the elderflower in it to flavour it…

Cawston Press do a range of good flavours which are basically just sparkling water and fruit juice - nothing else added

[theplayingmantis]

devnull said:

Nothing to add except say that I was on a plane to the US last December, and I had my first full fat US coke. My god, what a difference in taste, it took me back to my childhood.

Really?

Odd as it doesnt have sugar in like the ones in UK, unless its a throwback, unless i'm much mistaken and things have changed post pandemic.

Its high fructose corn syrup. Theres a reason they do throwback versions in the states made of actual sugar.

[emperorburger]

theplayingmantis said:

devnull said:

Nothing to add except say that I was on a plane to the US last December, and I had my first full fat US coke. My god, what a difference in taste, it took me back to my childhood.

Really?

Odd as it doesnt have sugar in like the ones in UK, unless its a throwback, unless i'm much mistaken and things have changed post pandemic.

Its high fructose corn syrup. Theres a reason they do throwback versions in the states made of actual sugar.

Yep, still contains HFCS and it's the reason some Americans will look for Coke that is either Kosher or imported from Mexico to get the cane sugar version.

[thepeoplespal]

You could try Rio, (rather than Rio Light the most readily available) it is fairly popular here in the west midlands, even available in Costco.

[theplayingmantis]

so in conclusion either devnell is misremembering his childhood, or was a child in the US when they started swapping out sugar for HFCS or prefers the HFCS one!

I personally and have no issue with the taste of the HFCS ones when in the states. Tastes damn better than sugar free.

[r3g]

I've finally got my hands on the Belvoir Farm Orange cordial. Great choice! It has a taste to it that reminds me of the thick sliced dark orange jars of marmalade .

[TonyRPH]

r3g said:

I've finally got my hands on the Belvoir Farm Orange cordial. Great choice! It has a taste to it that reminds me of the thick sliced dark orange jars of marmalade .

It's definitely become my soft drink of choice. No apparent nasty side effects either (that I'm aware of!).

[Mobile Chicane]

Try the Monin syrups:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Monin-Orange-Sanguine-Syr...



I can personally attest that the blood orange one is delicious.