{"id":468,"date":"2025-04-01T11:41:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T11:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/?p=468"},"modified":"2025-04-13T08:02:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T08:02:36","slug":"ribena-fans-distraught-as-brand-confirms-change-that-made-drink-taste-weird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/01\/ribena-fans-distraught-as-brand-confirms-change-that-made-drink-taste-weird\/","title":{"rendered":"Ribena fans distraught as brand confirms change that made drink \u2018taste weird\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\"A\t<\/div>
They’ve made a couple of changes to the iconic recipe (Picture: BERTRAND LANGLOIS\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ribena<\/a> has been a popular drink<\/a> in the UK for more than 80 years, having first been developed in the 1930s.<\/p>\n

It was originally created as a blackcurrant syrup, high in vitamin C and was given out by the government<\/a> to children and expectant mothers free of charge during World War II, as fruit with vitamin C<\/a> was scarce at the time.<\/p>\n

Today it\u2019s enjoyed as a squash, but those who consume it regularly might have noticed it tastes a little bit different<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because the drink\u2019s recipe has recently undergone some changes, as has been confirmed by the brand itself. This included adding a natural blackcurrant flavour and removing the polydextrose. <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve also \u2018very slightly\u2019 reduced the amount of blackcurrant <\/a>juice the product contains.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Bottles\t<\/div>
The popular drink has been a staple in the UK for more than 80 years (Picture: Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This confirmation follows complaints from customers who claimed it tasted \u2018weird\u2019 and demanded they \u2018bring back the original\u2019.<\/p>\n

Taking to Facebook, Paul Thomas Spencer said: \u2018I thought it tasted weird, I thought I\u2019d got an odd bottle. It tastes cheap.\u2019<\/p>\n

As Kerry Enoch wrote: \u2018Bring back the original Ribena from the 1970s, that was delicious.\u2019<\/p>\n

And Eddie Platt shared: \u2018Nobody\u2019s ever complained about the taste since day one, so why try and improve or fix things that are not broken?\u2019<\/p>\n

Mazy Von Peebles added: \u2018It was perfect and now undrinkable. Thanks Ribena, kids crying now.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Comment now<\/title><span class=\"metro-comment-cta__text\">Have you noticed a change in Ribena’s taste? Share your thoughts below.<\/span><\/span><a class=\"metro-comment-cta__button\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\">Comment Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p>Speaking about the changes, Sarah Fleetwood, head of marketing for Ribena, said: \u2018We set ourselves the challenge of improving our Ribena Blackcurrant squash. The key ingredients remain – we\u2019ve just re-balanced the recipe to deliver more of the unique Ribena taste that we know our consumers love. <\/p>\n<p>‘After a year of trials, we\u2019ve delivered a better-tasting drink and in a taste test, two-thirds of people preferred the improved recipe.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018What hasn\u2019t changed is the fact that Ribena is still made with 100% British blackcurrants and performs very favourably on \u201cjuice per serve\u201d ratio compared to other squash drinks\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>This isn\u2019t the first time the Ribena recipe has changed though, as it was also notably altered in April 2018, when artificial sweeteners were added to the drink, in response to the introduction of the<a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2018\/01\/24\/sugar-tax-much-will-increase-drink-prices-will-start-7256076\/https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2018\/01\/24\/sugar-tax-much-will-increase-drink-prices-will-start-7256076\/\"> government\u2019s sugary drink tax.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Do you have a story to share?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Get in touch by emailing <a href=\"mailto:MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk\">MetroLifestyleTeam@Metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They’ve made a couple of changes to the iconic recipe (Picture: BERTRAND LANGLOIS\/AFP via Getty Images) Ribena has been a popular drink in the UK […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.merlinscove.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}