What the hell is Dandelion and Burdock? (Morrisons Dandelion&Burdock (No Added Sugar) Pop)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	Morrisons Dandelion&Burdock (No Added Sugar) Pop
Date:	26/07/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, acceptable

Disadvantages: Not great, Ben Shaw's is better, A fake taste

Working opposite a Morrison's garage for 5 days a week, often means that Morrison's is the closest shop to get a drink from, which has seen me recently buying their home brand drinks, they come in 3 flavours "Keg Shandy", "Lemonade" and "Dandelion and Burdock". The latter two coming in both a regular version and a sugar free variant, and are all priced rather well at 34p for a 500ml bottle. This compares well to the branded alternatives available like 7-Up and Sprite (both typical lemonades) as well as Fanta, Dr Pepper and Coca-Cola variants.

The Lemonade and the Dandelion and burdock both come in clear bottles (whilst the Keg Shandy has a brown bottle) made of plastic with a label adorning the site of the bottle a white cap on the bottle. The labels on them all contain the normal information about nutrition, ingredients, how to store a bottle (yes we actually need to be told that) and warnings (we also need to be told how to open a bottle). Quite bog standard looking home brand goods to be honest.

When opened the bottle seemed quite calm with a short little almost sputtering fizz as opposed to a roaring angry fizz you often get with other fizzy drinks, possibly down to the relative cheapness of the product as opposed to anything else, though not a bad thing at all. Personally it must be said, when a fizzy drink is trying to escape my body, it suddenly puts me off the drink altogether. When it comes to Dandelion and Burdock the I sadly have no idea which flavour is which as I've (probably quite sensibly never eaten either). So a mouthful of the drink is needed, just to see it anything can be detect that would lead to an apparent 2 flavour drink...sadly nothing really shows it's self as separate from the main taste. Still none the wiser on which flavour is which sadly.

However for those wondering, this is actually a traditional (as in "ye olde English") flavour as opposed to a new creation, which is often popular amongst grandmothers who remember having it as a treat whilst still a spring chicken. Or at least it is here in blighty.

So the the drink, a dark brown colour much in the "cheap coke" mould, which despite not looking hugely appetising has never put me off drinking before, mainly because I'm quite a miserable sod when it comes to spending.

So back to the flavour, it comes across as being really artificial and fake a slight sweetness with a little bite, not the flowery taste you'd expect from a drink named after 2 plants to be honest. The drink leaves a slight stickiness on my untrained moustache which has found it's was too close to the upper lip, but other than that the drink seems flat and unexciting.

Oddly the storage instructions say to keep away from sunlight, which hadn't been followed to the letter, as it was left on a desk at work, but despite this the fizz went extraordinarily quickly if this is too blame. What's more likely is that the product was just cheap and not meant to survive a day without losing it's fizz, which comes across as a bit of a shame to be honest.

As a drink it's acceptable and easy to drink, even if it does seem quite thick in the mouth and not the greatest tasting drink of all time. Though at 34p what do you expect really? Well oddly B + M were selling Ben Shaws version of the drink at just 27p until recently, and that was a much nice drink. Their version reminds myself of the old Sarsaparilla sold in the north west of England until the 1990's.

Overall it is exactly what you pay for, cheap and drinkable but by no means should it be your drink of choice.

Stuff:
The drink is suitable for vegetarians
The drink contains Gluten and Sulphites
The drink contains the mixture of concentrates from Apple, Carrot and Hibiscus.

Notes:
Sorry this is for the sugared variant* Apology's to all readers.

Summary: So I still dunno what it is?