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.

Were they vegy, but became vegan? That’s a whole other thread!

Annoys me as well that coffee shops seem free to sell as many syrup laden drinks as possible with sugar on the side but if I want a cold drink without sweetener it's almost impossible.

Rocks squash only has sugar. I really liked the lemon one. I'll try with sparkling water next time

We're seriously contemplating making our own cordials this year as almost everything now has aspartame in it. We can tolerate Stevia but it's not the same as sugar. I thought the Fentimans cola we had recently as an occasional treat tasted odd, now I know why, it never even occurred to me they'd have stopped using sugar. We're not fans of the do goofing virtue signalling Mr Oliver in this house though we do wonder what was really behind the sudden campaign against sugar - bad beet harvest, maybe?!

Wow....I was really looking forward to drinking my ginger beer and though something was wrong with my taste buds...or thought that I might be getting corona... just looked up the ingredients to be sure to find...stevia. This sucks so much! Tastes so awful!! There goes my favourite ginger beer ...at least Fever Tree has a sugar free edition and a 'normal' edition. Fentimans is being sneeky indeed. Gross on both levels :/ Not buying again, unfortunately..

I don't mind stevia, they've put it in seven up for ages.

But I am FURIOUS that menthol sweets now do fuck all. Had a cold recently, might as well have had blimmin opal fruits.

Pizza Hut near me amuse me greatly with this. Aside from water every soft drink on their menu contains aspartame. (Franchises so menus may vary)
I’m not allowed sugar, but can have several pints of beer with my pizza instead! How does that make any sense.

I’m not a big drinker so that doesn’t interest me and water on a meal out isn’t exactly a treat. I usually take a small bottle of Pepsi and explain I’m allergic. Never been refused yet.
When I do go out on occasion I’m fortunate my sons friend owns the bar I go to, and because he’s a sweetie he keeps a bottle ofM&S lemonade in the fridge with my name on it so I can have a gin and lemonade bless him.

For the ginger beer fans - Supermalt ginger beer ( often in the Caribbean section at the supermarket) remains unsullied. I had to change after Old Jamaica, which was my go to, put sweetener in all its products.

Another response from Fever Tree which is much more reassuring than the first. Fentimans still haven’t responded.

“Fever-Tree was founded on the basis of using only sugar, rather than artificial sweeteners, and it's something we know a lot of people appreciate about Fever-Tree drinks. We will always be looking at ways to innovate and grow with the market but certainly won't be sacrificing our original message to do so. “

Thanks for the tip off about Fentimans, OP. I rushed to Sainsburys yesterday after seeing this. Rose lemonade is my fav and it was all reduced. I was about to buy it all up then realised it already had steviol in it 🤮.

DD managed to find me some in the mini mixer cans that was still the old recipe so I bought 2 boxes but it’s an expensive way to buy it! (not reduced!).

I’ve also ordered a Bon Accord selection pack pre the pp and noted that my local Dobbies stocks the Summer House Drinks.

Gutted about Fentimans though!

Re Soda Folks adding sweeteners, I’m sure they posted something on Instagram sawhile back saying ‘we made a mistake!’ and are reinstating original recipes!

Found it!

From October last year

I've just seen another thread saying that Pepsi has started adding sweeteners now too. The thread says aspartame but I just saw a poster say it's acesulfame K and sucralose.

I'm glad I've always preferred Coke to Pepsi now but that's one less safe drink on the list.

Yep that was me.

New ingredients
Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (E150d), Acid (Phosphoric Acid), Flavourings (including Caffeine), Sweeteners (Acesulfame K, Sucralose)

Old Ingredients
Carbonated Water, Sugar, Colour (Caramel E150d), Acid (Phosphoric Acid), Flavourings (including Caffeine)

might make a farm foods trip tomorrow for a crate of old recipe cans, the. It’s back to coke for me.
why can’t they just leave stuff a fucking lone.

Good luck Nails, I hope you can stock up!

I just don't get what the point is of having diet and Zero drinks already and then faffing around with the sugary ones too. Let people have the choice. I'd much rather pay a bit more than constantly be examining the labels.

DH is a Pepsi Max drinker and even he rolled his eyes when I told him they're changing the "normal" Pepsi now too.

Fingers crossed. If not I don’t mind coke.
tbh I’m more concerned about the impact in pubs. I’m wondering if this new recipe will make its way into the draft stuff which will further limit drink choices when out as most places are either coke or Pepsi.

Article here I posted on the Pepsi thread.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/pepsi-drink-be-sold-supermarkets-57-less-sugar-pepsico-confirms

I don't drink spirits in pubs at all now just in case. Beer or wine all the way for me. I've even had alcohol free beer in Spoons before when I wanted something cold and fizzy but I didn't want to have alcohol. I also have to watch my caffeine intake so if the decaf coffee runs out in our local Spoons I have even less choice. The amount in fizzy drinks is fine at least because I'd be left with water or alcohol otherwise it seems.

Funny thing was, been out for a meal tonight in a chain pub and they had draft Pepsi on. Was great to be able to buy a pint of it. Even commented to DH that it was a rare treat 😂
Jinxed that fucker didn’t I?

From the link you posted it says "PepsiCo has confirmedd* that out-of-home locations, such as pubs and restaurants will continue to serve the original product for the time being, which contains 10.65g of sugar per 100ml."

But who knows how long "for the time being" really means?

Whoops I think I managed to copy the hyperlink in that as well.

Aha! I missed that. Thank you. Long day.
I do hope the announce if any change is made to that but safe for now. Be interesting to see the fight back over this. Tesco has already gone to one star reviews for new Pepsi products. I do wonder if sales will tank and people will go back to coke.

My allergy is only aspartame thankfully, but that doesn’t change the fact that acesulfame tastes absolutely bloody vile.

I was hoping when Irn Bru first changed their recipe that sales would tank and they'd backtrack but they just introduced the 1901 product instead. The fizz isn't quite the same on that but it does keep my little Scottish heart happy at least.

I do have the occasional bottle of that as a treat. Lidl used to do a knock off, sweetners free dupe of the Bru that was about 39p a bottle and really quite nice but they stopped making it.