Ribena has reformulated its blackcurrant squash after a year-long trial.
The new recipe has resulted in slight reduction in blackcurrant juice content, with a natural blackcurrant flavour being added. The thickener polydextrose has also been removed.
Testing showed that two-thirds of shoppers preferred the new recipe, Ribena head of marketing Sarah Fleetwood said.
“We set ourselves the challenge of improving our Ribena blackcurrant squash,” Fleetwood said. “The key ingredients remain – we’ve just rebalanced the recipe to deliver more of the unique Ribena taste that we know our consumers love.”
The new formulation was “still made with 100% British blackcurrants” and performed “very favourably on ‘juice per serve’ ratio compared to other squash drinks”, Fleetwood added.
News of the reformulation came to light after a user on social media platform Reddit said a bottle of Ribena they had purchased tasted “entirely different”.
The Reddit user wrote: “Picked up some more Ribena with a different label.. and it tastes entirely different to the one I had before… anyone know if these are actually different or am I imagining it?”
The post prompted another Ribena shopper to reply: “I picked up the same new bottle today and it doesn’t taste like Ribena at all. It’s more like a summer fruits taste.
Another added: “They have 100% changed it. Nowhere near as thick, it’s like they just filled up the same bottle with some completely different liquid.”
Volumes of Ribena grew by 3.1% in the past year, while value sales have fallen by 0.8%, to £77.7m [NIQ 52 w/e 28 December 2024].
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