Back in the day juice, squash and cordial were strictly for the kids
In 1867, Leith lad Lachlan Rose invented Rose’s Lime Cordial. Darned handy if you wanted to avoid scurvy. He cracked how to preserve lime juice in sugar, not alcohol. This meant anyone could enjoy lime juice cordial, even temperance folk, but not really children. “Rose’s” was considered a sort of grown-up drink, bought at Christmas and mixed with gin for cocktails. Well, when I grew up I discovered the rest of the world called them “cocktails” but in our house at Hogmanay it was just known as “Betty’s gin and lime”. For a soft drink, it had a tough reputation. Raymond Chandler knew about Rose’s Lime Juice. In the middle of the murder and mayhem of his novel The Long Goodbye he breaks off to state unequivocally that “a real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s lime juice and nothing else”. Betty would have approved. Us kids made do with diluting orange juice. A quick read of the 1970s label would give today’s dieticians the heebie-jeebies, since I’m fairly sure at least half the ingredients have been banned. My mum claimed that one additive in the Co-op orange drink made me hyperactive, but it took the family five years to notice.
Some brands seemed to glow in the dark. Very useful in later life for those parched adults waking in the wee sma’ hours of the morning desperately seeking rehydration after one too many gin and limes.
For those with pretensions to a more middle-class lifestyle, there was always Wimbledon’s preferred beverage, Robinsons Barley Water. Most efficacious in soothing the stressed umpire’s thrapple after another McEnroe ding-dong. Had Margo Leadbetter entertained a teetotal vicar, she would have served Robinsons Lemon Barley Water. From a jug, with matching glasses, obviously.
With few exceptions, juice, squash or cordial were strictly for the kids, but not any more. The shelves are groaning with “grownup” combinations of orange and ginger, or mint and lime. It’s to lure us away from the devil drink. They’re very nice, but let me tell you, they taste even better with a shot of gin. I fear I may be missing the point.