To ask why there are sweeteners in nearly all soft drinks?

[wildlifeWalker]

I've stopped drinking alcohol but would like a replacement drink to put in a wineglass.
Nearly every cordial or sparkling drink I've looked at contains sweeteners which I absolutely hate the taste of. The only thing I've found is Belvoir sparkling elderflower which is nice but pricy!
I would just mix my own with fizzy water if I could find a nice, not too sweet cordial. I thought about pure grape juice but my supermarket doesn't do it.

M&S do these nice cans that are very juicy. Lovely flavours, it’s just juice & fizzy water.

Mostly it’s because of the sugar tax. You can buy organic squash eg Rocks and add sparkling water. I think Belvoir, Evergreen etc do cordial as well as mixed drinks.

If you like the Belvoir, then check out Luscombe Organic.

Rose's lime Cordial is my go to.

I wish I had an M & S near!
Will have to try those if I venture further afield!

Have you tried drinking Kombucha? It’s what we drink in the evening since going teetotal.

Ah of course! I'd forgotten as I hardly drink any soft drinks usually.
It totally ruins the taste of anything - tried that Schloer grape drink.. not nice! Didn't realise it had sweetners in it.

It’s because of the sugar tax. I’d far rather drink something that wasn’t as sweet than have drinks with sweeteners in, which make me feel sick or, at the very least, leave a horrible floury synthetic taste for hours.

Yes I have this with soda - fancied something a bit different as a treat!

There was actually some of this in a carton. What does it taste like? Is it sweet?

Thanks I'll have a look for that one.

Yeah, I was about to buy Schloer until I checked the label…

I feel you. I also hate the taste of sweet drinks whether it's sugar or sweetener.

I got a soda stream and do fizzy water, lemon, lime and angostura bitters (ok tiny tiny tiny bit of booze but don't think two drops even registers?). That makes me feel like I'm having a nice grown up drink

I got one in LIDL that was just grape & fizzy water. It was Ii the non-alcoholic wine section. Hope it wasn’t just for Christmas!

Sainsbury’s have an own brand High juice squash with sugar, an orange and mango and a summer fruits. You have to look carefully at some of the other high juices have sweeteners. We like them and nice to know you are not drinking some synthetic chemical cocktail

Innocent do a nice drink in a can called Bubbles which is just sparkling water and juice, they do lemon and lime and apple and berry - it's very refreshing and not too sweet.

Two reasons:

1. Soft drinks industry levy ("sugar tax"). Manufacturers have to pay a tax of 18p per litre on any drink containing 50 grams per litre or more of sugar, and 24p/L on any drink containing 80g/L or more. As passing this on to customers generally leads to a big drop in sales, many manufacturers have reduced sugar content, stopped making the high-sugar drinks at all or made much smaller quantities of them and badged them as premium-brand products at a higher price.
2. People have demanded sweeter and sweeter drinks over the years, to the point where it is impossible to dissolve sugar at a high enough concentration to satisfy people's taste. So artificial sweeteners (which are required at much lower concentrations) get added to increase the sweetness.

I also can't stand artificial sweeteners, which leave an aftertaste that lasts for several hours. I only drink fruit juice as a rule, which is high in sugar but doesn't have any artificial sweeteners. On the odd occasion that I drink fizzy drinks I'll only buy the sugar-based ones, but I probably consume about 2 litres a year.

If I consume any artificial sweetener I vomit and get a migraine. They put them in everything - I was taking rennies for indigestion and wondered why I ended up with nausea it was the sweeteners.

Of readily available drinks coke is the only one that doesn’t contain sweeteners and Pepsi on tap only, as their cans now have sweeteners. Irnbru 1901 is nice but harder to find.

i drink tea in pubs who don’t offer me something I can drink safely.

I was about to recommend Belvoir 😂 that's the only one I've found too

Oooh that sounds lovely - thank you I might try that. I also prefer less sweet drinks.

Cawston Press Rhubarb with apple sparkling water in cans

The Luscombe citrus drinks are nice. I only remember to buy them at Christmas.

Have a look at Mr Fitzpqtrick's cordials - I really like the fruit and flower ones.

This annoys me so much. Sweeteners are no better for obesity than sugar, taste vile and god knows what they do to your body long term.

That sounds really nice though Aldi and Llidl do tend to discontinue stuff I find.