Every day, it seems there's a brand-new beverage line in the fridge at the market: vitamin waters, fruit-flavored sodas, coffee drinks, colas with and without caffeine, sugar, or chemical additives.  Some are responsible for instantaneous addictions (mmm, like Ooba!  It's hibiscus soda!); others are just bloody awful (like Ayala's Herbal Water -- every last gaggy variety except the miraculous cloves-cardamom-cinnamon).  But few new beverages are really all that unique. 

Leave it to a truly old "new" beverage to be a real original.  Enter Fentiman's. 

Fentiman's has been brewing botanical beverages in the United Kingdom since 1905, and have only recently introduced their line of six natural sodas on this side of the pond. 

Five of the six Fentiman's varieties get their flavor from fermented ginger and other herbs and roots, brought to life through the company's time-honored 7-day brewing process.  (Which variety is ginger-free?  The Traditional Brewed Shandy.  It's 70% beer and lemon juice.)

All of Fentiman's sodas contain less than 0.5% alcohol (residual from the fermentation of the ginger), which means Fentiman's is considered a soft drink in the U.S. and Canada.  So not only can you buy it where hard liquor isn't sold, but you can serve it to the kiddies without getting in trouble.  (At least outside of Maine, anyway -- according to Fentiman's blog, the State of Maine Attorney General recently banned the sale of Fentiman's to minors.  Read about the big brew-ha-ha here.) 

As I was drinking Fentiman's Shandy, I was thinking how big a kick a kid might get out of it, because it tastes and smells like "real beer!" (Well...it actually tastes more like beery lemonade.  A combo I rather liked.)  So this Thanksgiving, if you want to give a couple of pre-pubescent nephews a real thrill at the kiddie table, serve up some Fentiman's Shandy in frosty mugs, and you'll still be leaving their livers intact.

Here's my take on Fentiman's individual flavors:

Shandy:  Like beer-and-lemonade; robust but refreshing.  Tastes great with Mexican food.  I liked it. 

Curiosity Cola:  A light cola flavor; put me in mind of diet cola with a splash of root beer.  I liked it. 

Dandelion & Burdock:  The most interesting, multi-layered soda I've ever tasted.  The first flavor is a brief flirtation with licorice, which dissolves quickly into a sweet cola-like taste, and finally, a gentle wash of pear juice.  This is a beverage to be savored, not chugged.  I liked it. 

Ginger Beer:  It's ginger ale turned up to eleven.  Tastes less like the ginger sodas we're used to in the U.S., and more like the ginger you get alongside your sushi.  Leaves a burning sensation on the tongue and in the throat.  I recognize that it's the "real thing" in ginger beer, but I didn't like it.  I'll stick with the fluffy-butt, sugared-up "lady's" swill we Yankees call ginger ale.

Mandarin and Seville Orange Jigger:  Whoa!  This knocked my socks off.  It's like someone added a little fizz to that yummy juice in the bottom of the lunch-sized cups of mandarin orange sections you get in four-packs at the supermarket.  You don't understand, I love that mandarin juice.  And this is it, delicately carbonated and filling a whole drinkable bottle!  Wow!  I loved it.

Victorian Lemonade:  Another winner!  Don't expect it to taste like any lemonade you've had before.  This is better.  It's lemonade with a kiss of ginger, speedwell and juniper, and just enough fizz.  It's sweet, tart, delicious.  Complex and yet simple in a "Grandma's recipe" kind of way.  I absolutely loved it. 

Fentiman's also makes mixer-size Tonic Water, Ginger Beer and Curiosity Cola, which contain a little extra carbonation, for creative mixologists. 

So where can you buy Fentiman's?  Ask at info@drinkfentimans.com. 

Want to read the history of Fentiman's and learn more about their products?  Visit www.drinkfentimans.com.

All right, so you've tried all six varieities of Fentiman's botanical sodas, and you're left with these charming, iconic Victorian-style bottles you can't bring yourself to throw away -- they're so darn cute.  What to do?

A-ha!  Enter the ReMake It bottle lamp kit by RePlayGround!




Far be it for me to dismiss pretty packaging when I see it, or to ignore a clever way to recycle and decorate at the same time. 

Six Fentiman's bottles (or any other aesthetically-pleasing bottles you may encounter) fit perfectly in the frame of this smart lamp kit.  Next, just add a lightbulb and plug it in!  Look what I did with my Fentiman's bottles!:




Can't you just see something like this sitting on one end of your basement-bar?  Or on the table in your retro-kitsch kitchen?  What a cool way to reduce, reuse, recycle! 

And hey, December's coming.  Almost anyone would dig the ReMake It bottle lamp kit as a gift.  After all, it's personalizable -- the recipient picks his or her own bottles!  Or how 'bout giving them the lamp and a sample of six Fentiman's sodas?  Go on, make yourself look good.  "Wow, [insert your name here] gives such smart, fun gifts!"  Awww, shucks.  You are awesome, aren't you?  Yeah.  I always knew it. 

Find out how to order up lamp kits for everyone on your gift list from RePlayGround.


Full disclosure: Samples of Fentiman's beverages were provided to me, Kim Brittingham, without charge from the manufacturer, per my own request.  A sample lamp kit was provided to me, Kim Brittingham, without charge for this blog byRePlayGround, per my own request.