Value For Money: Orange Cordials:

Miwadi €1.79 for 1 litre

This is a product beloved of generations of Irish children, particularly those brought up before fizzy drinks became the norm in many households. It has a pleasingly familiar taste, is nice and sweet and is perfectly refreshing on a hot summer’s day. We’re told on the bottle that it is “nature’s goodness” although the presence of saccharin, aspartame and some multi-syllabic preservatives contained within may suggest otherwise. It’s the only cordial we tested to have added sugar – although Miwadi does have a sugar-free option too.

Verdict:Sweet and familiar

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Fruice Orange Dilute €1.55 for 750ml, €2.26 per litre

This is the dearest bottle tried but it makes twice as much juice than the other cordials reviewed, we are told on the bottle, so it should make be better value than the above price suggests. While its rivals instruct us to add one part concentrate to four parts water, Fruice says we add one part concentrate to nine parts water. We follow the instructions to the letter but doing so left the drink a little (very) thin. It does put clear nutritional information on the packaging, perhaps so we can see how low in sugar it is.

Verdict:Too thin

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Robinson's Barley €1.79 for 1 litre

If Miwadi is Ireland’s own, this is the quintessentially English product which has an enduring association with Wimbledon. It has a nice sharpness to it and is a good thirst quencher. It is also lighter and less sweet than some of its rivals and the barley flavour adds an extra dimension to the flavours. It gives its nutritional information based on 100ml of concentrate which is pretty useless unless you’re prepared to engage in some pretty complex computations.

Verdict:Ace

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Dunnes Stores Orange Squash €0.99 for 2 litres, €0.50 per litre

This is the cheapest cordial we tried but that does not necessarily make it good value for money. It has quite a sharp edge to it that we didn’t find particularly pleasant and it had the strongest artificial sweetener aftertaste which we found even less palatable. It is as far removed from the taste of real orange juice as a block of wood although we could say the same thing of the considerably pricier options.

Verdict:Very cheap

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