You Cannot Be Serious! (Britvic Robinsons Barley Water)

Member Name: Emmald

Product:	Britvic Robinsons Barley Water
Date:	06/04/09 (199 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A good quality fruit and barley drink

Disadvantages: None

The well known name of Robinsons can be traced right back as far as the early 1800's.
Robinson and Belville sold Patent barley in a powder form, this powdered barley was added to boiling water to make a nutritious barley drink.

Robinsons Barley water and Wimbledon have always gone hand in hand and as early as the 1930's all of the players had a ready supply of Robinson's Barley water in their dressing rooms.

Robinsons was acquired by Britvic in 1995. The Essex based company Britvic was founded during the 19th century and was initially called The British Vitamin Products Company, hence the name Britvic was formed as an abbreviation of the company name.
Britvic started life as a small concern which was run from the back of a chemists shop, over time they branched out to manufacture all kinds of drinks, including tonic waters, soft drinks and lemonades.
During 1938 Great Britain suffered a depression and Ralph Chapman the owner of Britvic noted the need for a reliable source of Vitamin C,. At that point he managed to successfully bottle fresh fruit juices without using preservatives, the juices were sold to the public in small bottles and were an instant success.

Robinsons produce their barley water in both orange and lemon flavour, the fruit squash has a unique and distinctive flavour.
You might have noticed that Robinsons have another fruit and barley squash on offer in the supermarkets but this isn't a patch on the traditional barley water.

Robinson's Barley water comes in a plastic bottle, much easier to handle and safer to transport.
The plastic bottle is not a state of the art design, it is plain and simple and has an oval label on the front which clearly states all of the product information.

If you look closely at the plastic bottle you can clearly see that the barley water is much thicker than the normal fruit squashes. When you pour some into a glass ready to dilute the liquid is quite thick and creamy. As you fill the glass up the barley water appears cloudy at first but this soon settles down after a minute or two.
It does have a different taste to plain fruit squash. The addition of the barley creates a unique drink with a very 'nutty' flavour.
If I was going to choose a flavour it would have to be the lemon barley water, it has a refreshing `bite` to it, if the weather is hot is is a wonderful thirst quencher.
Both the orange and the lemon barley water are rich in fruit flavour and only a small amount is needed before adding water.

But Robinson's Barley water doesn't only have to be a summer drink, as the colder weather sets in it makes a good hot drink. Add some barley water to a mug and pour in some hot water. The hot water brings out the best in the barley and the drink is scrummy. If you have one of the family in bed with a cold then it makes the ideal drink.

A bottle of Robinsons Barley water costs around £1.50, so it is a little more expensive than other juices.
100ml contains 96 calories, 0.3g protein, 21.8g carbohydrate of which 19.8 g is sugars and 0.1g fibre.
I bought my last bottle in Tesco but I know that it is a popular drink for anyone who has been poorly and most chemists always stock it.
Barley water, another of our great British Traditions.

Summary: A very fruity drink, a marvellous thirst quencher.