Fevertree are too expensive and not all that....

[notatwork]

There's a thing on MSN about how their profits are down and they are blaming the weather.
I think that they are just too expensive.
My local sells a measure of flavoured gin for £3.30 but then a tiny bottle of fevertree is £2.20!
Their tonic is very sweet compared to others so presuming that's why it's so popular, but the other (ginger ale, bitter lemon etc)s are no better than Schweppes or supermarket own brand are they?
Does anyone think that they are worth the premium?

They are really expensive but don't contain artificial sweeteners like Schweppes and most other tonics. I feel I'm being ripped off because I really hate the taste of AS, so I've found alternatives to tonic.

I like the poncy tonic with different flavours, like the Mediterranean one. Only get it as a treat though, and usually when it’s on offer. I do think it’s nicer than cheaper brands, mostly because it doesn’t have artificial sweeteners in it. But I agree its’s very expensive.

Xposted dione! I think it’s a disaster that so many drinks are now being made with artificial sweeteners because of the sugar issue. We should just be making less sweet drinks. Artificial sweeteners are thought to make obesity worse so I don’t think it’s going to help at all.

Love fevertree. I love the fact the light ones don’t have chemical sweetener, if you buy the cans you don’t end up wasting much.

On offer in Tesco atm

I agree, the amount of kids’ drinks with artificial sweetener in is disheartening.

I hate that so many pubs do Fevertree instead of Schweppes now; even the light version is crazy carby and I can't have it due to being on the Keto diet. Schweppes has 0 carbs, but pubs that do Fevertree don't sell Schweppes. Boo!

I like it but agree that it's expensive, but will choose it over Schweppes because I avoid artificial sweetners.

At home I buy Essential Waitrose cans because they also don't have sweetners in and work out cheaper as you get 6 larger cans for about £2.20 instead of 8 teeny ones for quite a bit more.

I also like cans because they don't go flat and it's not plastic bottles. Even when I use the larger bottles, which work out much cheaper, especially when having more than one G&T a day, it just doesn't seem properly fizzy and is quite flat the next day.

Yeah I buy it because I can't tolerate/also dislike taste of sweeteners.

The price probably had to go up because of the sugar tax.
But their profits would still probably have tanked if they had changed to a sweetener - Barr aren't doing so well after adding sweetener to irn Bru.

I buy nice gin and I don't like a strong drink so the flavour of the tonic is important.

Good to know about essential Waitrose tonic!

The fact that the light versions still contain sugar goes against them as they don’t have a 0 calorie version, they’ve locked themselves out of a big market.

I love fever tree tonic 🤷‍♀️

Ooh thanks Barbara for the tip. I'll get my next lot from Waitrose then because we usually always have cans of fevertree in the fridge!

Dh loves the FT ginger beer but I think is vile smelling.

Yes, but they also do corner the market for natural products without sweeteners, as this thread shows.

The ginger beer makes me sneeze my head off.

The lemonade they do is really nice and as said above, has no sweeteners.
I won't touch any of them.

I don’t understand why fizzy drinks with stevia are so hard to find here in general, standard in the US in trader joes and whole foods for at least 15 years (that makes me feel old).

supermarket own mixers are often stevia.
Schweppes usually saccharin I think.
I only have Fevertree in the pub not at home but if it were similarly priced to other brands I may pick it up in the supermarket.

At home; gin (the sort with juniper in , splash of Robinsons pear and elderflower cordial, ice, soda/Perrier. So good!

Barr makes drinks with steviol.
I don't mind them as much but they can be a bit sickly compared to sucrose.
But I didn't like high fructose corn syrup either. Compared to that, steviol is similar.

On offer at 2 packs for £4 atm.

www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/essential-waitrose-indian-tonic-water/058201-29243-29244

I also like the look of the posh Schweppes 1783, again no sweetners and on offer

www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/schweppes-1783-cucumber-tonic-water/881785-690708-690709

Waitrose is not my usual supermarket as most of the others are closer, but I need to go and stock up, I noticed the other day that the tonic shelf was looking empty and I have a £8 off £40 spend voucher.

The fact that the light versions still contain sugar goes against them as they don’t have a 0 calorie version, they’ve locked themselves out of a big market

I disagree with this. Plenty of people don't want diet calorie free mixers, we'd rather do without or drink plain sparkling water instead, as they taste disgusting.

The effect of the sugar tax is to have massively reduced choice for those of us who drink a small amount of full sugar drinks and never drink anything with artificial sweeteners in as almost all soft drinks are now contaminated.

dozy San Pellegrino soft drinks have stevia in, unfortunately.

I want the sugar, stevia gives me the shits and tastes vile.

Fevertree lemon tonic is lovely. It’s belt something I drink regularly though so don’t mind what it costs.

I don’t drink any diet drinks, artificial sweetener is worse than sugar imo.

The pear and elderflower cordial sounds lovely too. I've just finished the Robinsons strawberry, mint and cucumber cordial, it was lovely with a FT tonic in it, in a wine glass topped up with ice cubes. I'm fairly sure my neighbours think I'm drinking rose wine at 3pm in the back garden in the afternoons whilst reading. The pear and elderflower one would look like white wine

Eat well for less did an independent taste test of tonics. Can't remember all the results but Alid won, closely followed by Fever Tree. Schwepps was right down the bottom - most people in the blind test said it was disgusting!

I think they are making less as there are more premium tonics coming onto the market.