Rocks organic fruit squash (from Devon)

Rocks is a Devon brand that has been selling natural cordials for years, and widely found in health stores, farm shops and supermarkets. As well as mixing with still or sparkling water, you can warm them up on chilly days.

It’s rare these days to find proper sugar squash, as most brands now add artificial sweetener, in a bid to reduce costs with the upcoming sugar tax.

Recently in a bid to make drinks more affordable, some drinks are no longer organic. But the good news is that two still are, so we list them here.

Rocks organic orange squash is made from squished whole organic oranges, pure spring water and natural sugar, with some orange oil.

Avoid unpasteurised juice for children, pregnancy/nursing and weak immunity.

Store in the fridge after opening, and drink within 3 weeks. Keep lids on to avoid attracting ants, bees and wasps. Rinse glass bottles before recycling, it’s okay to keep caps on.

If you buy the canned non-organic drinks, rinse then pop ring-pulls back over holes. Then step on upper cans to pinch rims together (this stops wildlife getting accidentally trapped).

Rocks organic blackcurrant squash

Rocks organic blackcurrant squash is your very own ‘natural Ribena!’ A drink created by a chemist at Bristol University back in 1938 to help people get vitamin C, when citrus fruits were not available.

But the modern version is now owned by a Japanese food brand and again uses artificial sweetener. It recently spent £7 million on a TV ad campaign, encouraging people to drink a beverage that has removed some of the blackcurrant juice with ‘blackcurrant flavour’ to reduce sugar content.

One user says it now tastes more of ‘summer fruits’ than blackcurrants. Another former fan wrote online ‘Adding sweeteners to Ribena was intended to reduce our sugar intake. This has worked, as I no longer buy Ribena!’