I think that I know more about British culture than the “average” American does, not that that is very much. But until my recent trip over there, I had never heard of this fruit syrup drink you dilute with water, known there as squash. My friend introduced me to it and I loved it! So much better than Kool-aid or other powder “juices.”
For those who don’t know about it, it’s basically just concentrated juice and syrup sold in small bottles, containing some percentage of juice (they even have double strength squash). You add tap water on a per-glass basis so you don’t have to have a giant jug of juice taking up space in your fridge all the time. Basically, it’s amazing. And the flavor is just like any juice you’d buy off the shelf here, if not better, because you have control over how sweet or dilute you want it.
Why is it that in America we don’t have squash? My British friend was amazed that I had never heard of squash.
Now I know that we do have those frozen concentrates which are somewhat similar. But other than that and powdered drink mixes… we don’t have anything like squash. Is there a potential untapped market here?
First Flymos and now squash, two things surprisingly unavailable in the USA (unless things have changed since my last survey of the hover mower market). Surely these are business opportunities?
One, pre-made drink mixes like Kool-Aid are somewhat more shelf-stable and convenient, and are a common and time-honored US tradition.
Two, juice seemed to be a bigger deal here than in the UK.
Third, and probably largest, soft drinks are cheaper and more ubiquitous here.
I found myself drinking a lot of squash/cordials when I was over there, because sodas were expensive relative to the price of cordials, and that wouldn’t be so here.
If it tastes like any juice you’d get in the States, then wouldn’t it just be concentrate, with no added syrup? We have that, it’s just not all that popular, and is not usually done on an serving-by-serving basis.
If it is sweetened, I’d say part of the problem is the American obsession with 100% juice. Apple juice, orange juice, grape juice, etc are always just pure juice (albeit sometimes more concentrated than the real thing.) Cranberry juice is the one exception.
Super-concentrated products like that have been on the market in the UK for a few years too, e.g. Robinsons Squash’d. I suppose it is similar, apart from being more concentrated. I mean, how many different formulations of fruit juice and syrup can there be? ISTR that they are more cordial-like though.
They’re sort of like a fruit-flavored syrup that you mix with water; I can’t think of a direct modern-day equivalent, but the closest thing I can think of is how Hawaiian Punch used to be sold in pint bottles of concentrate syrup which was diluted for actual drinking.
So imagine if you could get a bottle of syrup that was composed of sugar and lemon juice (and a few other ingredients) intended to be diluted for making lemonade. That’s essentially what a cordial/squash is.
I think the prevalence of normal strength, pre-bottled versions here in the US is the big killer of the category. Right now if you want lemonade, you can get the real-juice stuff in the cold section, you can get powdered lemonade like Country-Time, and you can get bottled lemonade in 2 liter bottles by Minute Maid or other companies.
Where exactly would a bottled syrup compete, and what advantage would it offer vs. the existing forms available in the US? Same thing for orange flavored drinks.
I guess in the UK it’s partly just a traditional product that people are used to, partly the versatility – as mentioned, you can vary the dilution yourself, and you can choose to have it carbonated or still or even put it in other drinks --, partly for people on extremely limited budgets, because a 50p bottle of squash goes a long way, and lastly I guess it could be down to space, because we have smaller houses = smaller fridges = less space to store undiluted drinks. Although 2 litre bottles, real fruit juice etc. are also very popular here.
Thanks, drewtwo99. Now I finally understand a joke in a British novel, where a newspaper ran an article saying “so-and-so broke his toe drinking squash,” and then later ran a correction saying “that should say, playing squash.”