Ribena. Is it just me or has the flavour changed?

MarkAlexander18

I used to remember Ribena was very nice when I was younger, but it seems like the taste has become a bit more chemically, if you can call it that. Don't get me wrong, the iconic taste is still in there, but feels like it's been masked by whatever ingredients have been added in the new recipe.

The strawberry flavour used to be nice, but that's changed too. The only other flavour is pineapple and passionfruit, which I am yet to try. Can you tell me if the company has been sold to new owners or something? In my opinion, they have ruined what used to be a tasty drink. Such a shame.

MsPisces

Its sadly been subjected to and therefore ruined by the sugar tax. It now contains aspartame which is the chemical taste you speak of.

I've heard its a genetic thing which means people like you and i are sensitive to the chemical taste whilst others are oblivious. Similar to some people perceive the taste of coriander to be soapy! And not the delicious herb that i love.

Pensioned_Off

Yes - the recipe has changed as MsP said.

They've put artificial sweetener in it to keep the sugar tax down.

Loads of brands have done the same thing - a lot of the Barrs drinks have changed too.

I always had 'fully leaded' options as I think a sugary drink once in a while won't hurt as much as loads of artificially sweetened cans.

It's made me really angry because now we have had that choice taken away from us.

System

Because the sugar tax is applied to drinks with more than 5g sugar per 100ml - there's a higher tax level (think its 12g sugar per 100ml) many drinks manufacturers changed their recipes before the tax to prevent being subjected to the sugar tax. So if you look at the nutritional values of many non-diet drinks, you will see most of them have sugar between 4.5-4.8g.

Its mainly Coke, Pepsi and energy drinks that have still got the high sugars. Some supermarkets full sugar high juice has this as well. But its priced at the number of litres of drink it makes per bottle. Normally you put in 1:5 parts juice to water

I remember about 15 months ago at work, I routed through the Ribena with a customer and she bought up all the bottles with the higher sugar levels.

MarkAlexander18

Pensioned_Off wrote: »

Yes - the recipe has changed as MsP said.

They've put artificial sweetener in it to keep the sugar tax down.

Loads of brands have done the same thing - a lot of the Barrs drinks have changed too.

I always had 'fully leaded' options as I think a sugary drink once in a while won't hurt as much as loads of artificially sweetened cans.

It's made me really angry because now we have had that choice taken away from us.

It's definitely disgusting to take the choice away from people. If the government want to raise awareness for sugary drinks/foods, then advertise how sugar can affect one's health, such as diabetes etc, and the complications which can have terrible consequences on your health.

I don't mind paying extra for a sugary drink or junk food as long as the iconic taste is there, and the recipe isn't messed with. Give us that choice. It is frustrating how much the population is being mollycoddled by government.

A._Badger

I am quite sure that in the fullness of time aspartame and some other artificial sweeteners will prove to have been more dangerous than sugar - and sugar probably less harmful than the zealots would have us believe.

Unfortunately, while we continue to elect idiot politicians (in this case David Cameron, allegedly egged on by his dippy wife) who would legislate to ban Wednesdays if they thought there might be a few votes in it, this sort of nonsense will continue.

My own personal favourite soft drink, San Pellegrino Limonata, has seen ruined by the substitution of Stevia for sugar. Stevia may be one of the 'better' alternatives but it has changed the taste of the drink completely.

DCFC79

MarkAlexander18 wrote: »

Can you tell me if the company has been sold to new owners or something? In my opinion, they have ruined what used to be a tasty drink. Such a shame.

I can definitely tell you that Ribena is still owned by the Japanese firm Suntory, they also own various brands like Jim Beam Bourbon and my favourite Orangina.

sarahj1986

I think it tastes like soap now. I don’t understand why they changed it seen as they already had the light version out. At least then there was the choice

p00hsticks

MarkAlexander18 wrote: »

I don't mind paying extra for a sugary drink or junk food as long as the iconic taste is there, and the recipe isn't messed with. Give us that choice. It is frustrating how much the population is being mollycoddled by government.

It's all very well railing about the government, but I'd say it's the manufacturer you really should be having a go at.

They weren't forced to change the recipe -in fact, it presumably would have been far less hassle for them not to do so. But they obviously decided that there weren't going to be enough people like you who would stomach the price increase for an unchanged recipe.


And if they'd felt there was enough demand, they could have continued with the existing high sugar version whilst bringing out a lower version too...