BARR soft drinks, or 'BARR's' as they're known in Scotland, have been making soft drinks since 1875 with their biggest seller being the national drink of Scotland; Irn Bru! The company have a good share of the UK drinks market but have history - and were set up - in Scotland.

This particular beverage makes a nice ice cream float; fill a glass with cream soda and scoop in a dollop of your favourite ice cream and voila, ice cream float.

With this in mind you'll be hard pressed to go into any shop in Scotland and not see the BARR brand in the fridge. The cream soda comes in three different formats; 330ml cans (around 29-35p), 750ml glass bottles and 2 litre plastic bottles.

The glass bottles have a 30p return on them, if you bring back the bottle and the cap :). When I was younger I'd collect a few bottles and then take them to the 'icy' (ice cream van) and get money off my sweeties and crisps ;). I'm quite happy that the 30p return still remains of the caps - it's a nice little tradition :D.

On Saturday it was unusually hot in Scotland and after a shopping trip I went into our local corner shop and spotted a 2 litre bottle for 99p! Bargain and a perfect drink on a roasting hot day. This is a definite treat for me as it is so steeped in sugar (7.1g per 100ml, to be exact.) The other ingredients are:

Carbonated Water

Flavourings

Citric Acid

Preservative (Sodium Benzoate)

Sweeteners (Sodium Saccharin, Aspartame)

I suppose the good thing about this drink is that has no fat in it - big deal, though, with that amount of sugar contained in it! The taste of this drink is almost like an ice cream - with a faint vanilla taste to it, it is sweet and sharp. It leaves behind quite a nice after taste, too ;).

This definitely isn't a drink to those who value their teeth or figures, but as an odd treat I have no issue in drinking it myself - plus it is pretty tasty :).