Fentimans ginger beer now has Stevia in.

[Camdenish]

Just that!

Nothing on the bottle to say there has been a change of recipe. It tasted so disgusting that I checked the ingredients list. Steviol (from Stevia) in it. I know it’s not an artificial sweetener but I don’t care. I want changes labelled so I don’t end up ingesting something that tastes of liquorice and gives me headaches and messes with my guts.

I will be so sad if all Fentimans drinks go this way, it’s difficult enough getting fizzy drinks that are only sugar, no sweeteners.

I’d rather have aspartame than Stevia, Stevia tastes rank.

I feel your pain, OP. Artificial sweeteners give me terrible digestive pain, and I'm allergic to pea protein, and it's so tiresome having to check out products all the time because they change the ingredients so randomly!

[Flowers]

This is getting ridiculous. I used to be able to enjoy all kinds of soft drinks. I now have to have original Coca Cola if I am out as it is now the only drink (apart from water) that I can be sure of not having ingredients that will make me unwell.

Ah, but Stevia isn’t an artificial sweetener. It’s made of some god awful plant so is natural. But Fentimans I don’t care about the naturalness or otherwise of my sweeteners, I just want sugar In my drinks. I don’t care if it’s more expensive. I don’t drink them that often as it’s a treat.

it’s the sneakiness I can’t get over. Not labelling it as a change.

Bastards

Me too. Fucking hate artificial sweeteners, Stevia, all of it. They give me the runs. I’m feeling really bad today - went out for a Mother’s Day lunch yesterday and they were giving a free virgin cocktail to mums. I could taste sweetener in it from the lemonade so didn’t drink more than a few sips.
gave it to DS to try, he drank the lot and when we got home he had the runs - I didn’t make the connection before, and he’s never been sensitive to lemonade before but now I’m wondering if he’s become intolerant to it like me. 🙁

Lemonade always has artificial sweeteners it it, apart from the Fentimans one. If that goes what am I supposed to have with my Pimms?

Waitrose and M&S have lemonade without sweetener for the time being.

I feel your pain OP. I despise the taste of any type of sweetener. That’s so disappointing, Fentimans was one of the few soft drinks brands I enjoyed.

Agree, it is the lack of choice and labelling that fucks me off.

San Pellegrino is undrinkable now. I want sugar, I don't care if it is more expensive.

Ah, but Stevia isn’t an artificial sweetener

No, I know. I'm fine with stevia, I was more consoling with you about random additions so you have to keep checking labels instead of being able to relax and know your foodstuff is okay for you.

You can get San Pelegrino with sugar in it, I think they call it Classic taste. They only do the orange flavour though, not the blood orange which I used to love.

Wait till they start doctoring Pimms itself...

😪

Oh yuck.

To me, stevia makes things taste like dishwater, and it upsets my stomach.

It's so annoying. Dh can't have any artificial sweetners, even the stevia. We spend a fortune on fever tree products because touch wood they remain unsullied.

Likewise, I'd pay more if it was drinkable, especially with spirits. So many things are utterly disgusting.

Sainsbury's do lemonade with real sugar too.

Hm, so glad I'm apparently in the minority who isn't affected. Can't taste the difference and it certainly doesn't give me the shits.

I hate artificial sweeteners too. Can tell from the first sip. Nasty aftertaste. Strangely the ingredients on the ginger beer on the Fentiman website just list sugar and glucose syrup amongst the ingredients

They’d better not mess with the Pimms!

I didn’t mean to be so emotive about it and thank you for sharing my pain Bishop.

I’ve heard that San Pelegríno Classic is full fat but I’ve never seen one in the wild.

I hope Fever Tree don’t fall or I’m going to have a hard time drinking gin. I take a small can of their tonic to the pub with me in case they’ve only got sweetener varieties of tonic.

I am not sure that full fat coke or Pepsi from the tap is full fat either.

Ohhhh shitballs. That's annoying. They've ruined so many good drinks but I supposed I should really thank them for making 99% of fizzy drinks so disgusting I can't bear to drink them now.

I caved in desperation to have something cold to drink when I'm having an alcohol free day and bought a ludicrously expensive passion fruit cordial that I've had before to mix with fizzy water. Got home, drank it, it tasted gross. Yep, it has sweetener in 🤬

My own stupid fault for not checking the label properly but I thought it was safe! Bottle has sat in the cupboard for a year now, not even adding vodka can make it palatable 😭

I know! I Googled it while I was in the pub with my rank bottle of ginger beer. That’s part of the upset, the sneakiness. I’m not sure if anyone is actually allergic to sweeteners but plenty, like me, are intolerant to them. The companies lack of clear labelling could make someone ill.

@Camdenish full fat coke is, I'm pretty sure Pepsi isn't. I'm sure I remember hearing that Coke were absolutely adamant they weren't going to change their recipe *round of applause 👏

I only like full fat coke too. All the sugar substitutes really make me quite ill

Curiosity Cola and Dandelion and Burdock too.

There goes my soft drink of choice.

That’s good to know squahed as our local has Pepsi on tap. I’ll avoid.