A truely Mancunian Drink (Vimto)

Member Name: duskmaiden

Product:	Vimto
Date:	25/07/03 (1916 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: yummy, best drunk hot

Disadvantages: rots your teeth

My last food and drink review was about a local product of my native Dumfries and Galloway. I decided to write about a more widely known product that originates in my adopted home of Manchester. This product is that wonderful fruity, funky and very purple stuff we call Vimto

Vimto was first made in 1908 by John Nichols in Granby Row in Manchester. The site were it was first produced is near the UMIST campus and there is a lovely sculpture of old fashioned Vimto bottles to celebrate this. The drink was developed as a medicinal drink. The name Vimto derives from Vim and Tonic, so it was a tonic to pep you up giving you vim and vigour.
It was originally produced in a cordial but the range has been expanded to encompass fizzy vimto, vimto high juice, vimto citrus, and vimto jelly to spread on your sandwiches and vimto ice lollies and ordinary lolly pops. All of them I have tried and love. I have besides me a can of fizzy vimto and a glass of vimto cordial to be tasted to bring you this review.

Fizzy Vinto

Packaging
The can contains 330 ml of this wonderful fizzy fruity drink. It is a very pretty can being a purpley-pink and reflective. The reddish familiar logo declares it is Vimto and there are cartoon fruits on the side of the can. They are evidently having a Pokemon promotion from the writing on the can but I am far too old for that and ignore it the can declares Vimto to be a sparkling Grape, Blackcurrant and raspberry Juice Drink. It has a list of ingredients but I find these very hard to read and also nutritional information.


The look.
I pour some into a glass. It is a nice pinky purple bubbly drink. The smell has that distinctive fruity smell.

Taste
Fizzy Vimto has a nice light fizz which is not too gassy. I take a mouthful of it and slosh it around my mouth. It has a fruity not too sweet flavour. It has that special vimto quality that I can not explain. I think it might be the grape juice but I


?m not sure.

Fizzy vimto can be bought widely in regular and diet versions. It comes in 330 ml cans, 500 ml bottles and 2 litter bottles. The average price of a can is 45 pence.

I now turn my attention to the glass of Vimto cordial. If this was a cold dark night it would be a mug of steaming hot vimto as I can think of nothing better.

Vimto Cordial

The packaging
Vimto cordial comes in a 1 litre plastic bottle. Just below the neck the plastic is moulded into little circles perhaps to represent the black currants that are in the drink. The label proclaims it to be Original Vimto and has pictures of juicy looking raspberries, grapes and black currants. The label is a funky combination of reds pinks and purples that merge into each other. The definition of the cordial is a Concentrated Grape, Blackcurrant and raspberry Juice drink with sugar and sweetness.
Apparently the bottle has 33 servings of Vimto in it and one serving gives you 17 of your recommended daily amount of Vitamin C to keep your immune system healthy.
The ingredients are as follows
Water, concentrated fruit juice (10%) sugar, colours, citric acid flavouring an other strange sounding stuff.
It is fairly low in calories and has no fat in it but does have lots of natural and nnatiral sugars to rot your teeth.

The undiluted cordial is a very very dark purpley, red and is almost black. I like the taste of undiluted cordial as that distinctive vimto taste is ultra strong.

Instructions for use
Dilute one 30 ml serving with five parts water.

Once diluted the cordial becomes a lovely reddy purple. It is still a stronger taste then the fizzy stuff but still has that magical taste. I really find it hard to describe but it is ultra good. It is fruity without being either too sweet or artificial. A bottle of Vimto cordial is quite expensive as is about £1.10 but well worth it. Unfortunately I will drink a bottle very q
uickl
y as
it is very palatable and very moreish

Advertising
The adverts for Vimto use Purple Ronnie poetry and are very low tech but very amusing


Even though Vimto has become a nationwide success it is still produced fairly locally as he factory is near Wigan and the company Vimto soft drinks is based in Warrington

I would personally recommend Vimto as it is a real comfort drink to take you back to childhood.
Try the hi tech website at www.vimto.co.uk

Summary: