Classic Soda Syrup - Citrus Lemonade product reviews

Barkers is such a dependable product, it has reinvented itself time after time introducing new products to the market regularly, this Citrus Lemonade Classic Soda Syrup is yet another awesome addition to its range of syrups.

The bottle has a such a tried and true traditional look, I love that is it glass (as less plastic is better) and a good size of 710ml which when made up makes 25 glasses if mixed to one part to six parts soda water. The syrup is gluten-free, low calorie and has no artificial sweeteners; such appealing things to many consumers of products, Barkers are doing this right.

I mixed this Lemonade syrup with water, not soda water as I'm not really a fan of soda water, and some ice cubes and sat down to enjoy it on my sun-filled deck on a 24 degree spring day in Otago. All I say is it was a lovely refreshing crisp citrus taste and I loved the low sugar taste and the fact I was in control of my own mixing, it put the power in my hands and I appreciated it as I regularly water down store-bought pre-mixed juices as I find them too sweet.

A great drink to use on a family outing, take to a BBQ or just keep in the fridge, you could use as a mixer with spirits, it really would be a versatile drink to have around the home.

Our family loves to make drinks up using the soda stream and I was excited to try this flavour and I also loved the fact that this product is Gluten free, Low calorie has No artificial sweetener used and also is made in New Zealand. I got my partner to make us a drink up and he poured some in, and then tried it and said it needed more and then poured more in and tried it and still said it needed more and poured more in. He said we used a lot for one serving. He enjoyed the flavour though once it was to his liking.

I tried it and thought it was to strong and could have done with less but I really enjoyed the drink and made me another one. My partner a day later grabbed the bottle out of the fridge he made up and drunk it and said it tasted a lot better after sitting in the fridge over night. He said he really enjoyed it. I also thought the same and still continued to enjoy the flavoured drink. I love this flavour and think it was a great hit in the house hold and family and hopefully if I can get my partner to pour less in then it would work out more cost effective for us with value for money.

My son who is nearly 10 enjoyed the drink as well and so did his friend who he had over. They both said it was a refreshing drink for after kicking the ball around outside and asked for more. They both enjoyed it with ice and said it was yummy. I made some into ice blocks which they really enjoyed as well. Goes down a treat and would be more of a hit come summer time.

When you are a household which doesn't drink tea or coffee, water becomes a rather bland and boring drink. For this reason, we end up drinking quite a lot of fruit syrups, and Barker's of Geraldine is always top on our list. I was so excited to see that they had produced a new range of products, called 'soda syrups', and even more excited to receive a sample of the citrus lemonade to review.

I was thrilled to see that the expected Barker's quality of the bottle and label has been retained with this newrange. The glass bottle with the Barker's of Geraldine name printed on it gives the air of quality and expectation of a premium product. The label is great- slightly different to their classic fruit syrups so you know that it's from the new range, but still containing all of the information you need. I was particularly excited to see that it is light on sugar- as a family always looking to reduce their sugar consumption, this is a great bonus. Certainly, this product is appealing well before you open the bottle.

We drink a lot of lemon syrups- they are one of the favourites in our house for a refreshing drink. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this, especially being called a citrus lemonade and being a soda syrup, rather than the traditional fruit. I was pleasantly surprised by the smell. This is nowhere near as sweet smelling as a lemon and barley drink, but slightly zingier and fresher, with a hint of lime and grapefruit alongside the lemon notes. The taste of this syrup is divine. Drier than a traditional syrup and much brighter flavour. The lime and grapefruit alongside the lemon are perfect in adding that extra citrus spark. This is a truly refreshing drink, quite unlike most other syrups which are out there.

On its own in water, this syrup is amazing but added as a mixer to other drinks, it steps up another notch. A touch of sparkling water adds to that truly refreshing taste, to create a lovely long drink, perfect for summer (or thinking of summer with the heat pump cranked up to the max!). We also tried this as a mixer alongside some spirits. Unfortunately, I can't partake at the moment, but I am told that added to vodka and gin it was a great pairing - adding that dry but bright note to make for an easy weeknight drink.

In terms of value, there are equivalent to 25 glasses per bottle, and I would say that that is a generous helping. As a mixer or even a straight drink it would make at least the suggested amount, and so is great value for this new and innovative product.

If you are looking for something sweet and sickly, this is not for you. However, if you are looking for a perfect mixer or a great refreshing long drink for any occasion, this is an ideal choice. Once again Barker's have come up with a game-changing product which makes you question why no-one has done this before.

I have long sung barkers praises their wide range of products are very popular in our house from sauces,and spreads, to drinks and chutneys. I love the way they take natural local ingredients and make products that have that authentic home made taste and proper natural ingredients just like nana would of made! I say this for this review because I remember my nana's home made lemonade she would boil up her lemons and make up her sparkling water in the soda stream and it was the best treat as a child to have some of nanny's lemonade.

This definitely has that old fashioned home made lemonade taste which is so much more enjoyable than 'lemonade' you can buy such as Sprite and the likes. I absolutely loved this and my kids did too. I enjoyed it as both a sparkling mix with sparkling water and with still water for more of a juice style lemonade. My 6 year old boy absolutely loved it with sparkling water drinks with fizz for him are a treat as I am a bit against high sugar drinks but this is a great option for us as the sugar content is great and we still get a great taste that young children enjoy.

I also love that it has no artificial sweeteners the thing that concerns me with drink companies reducing sugars by adding artificial sweeteners is that a lot of these artificial sweeteners are chemical based and probably worse for you than the sugar it replaces. Barkers products for me have that great balance of natural ingredients with lower sugars naturally by using real fruit ingredients rather than adding unnecessary components into a product to make it taste nicer. This lemonade syrup is great just the way it is!

Opening our review box from KIWIreviews is always exciting, as the kids know that the sticker means things to trial, hubby knows it, and I feel like it is a lucky dip - as you do not know what you are getting until you delve into the box.

Opening it up, inside we found not one, but two bottles of different flavours of soda syrup by Barkers to try. I was super excited for a few reasons, these being - Barkers is made here in NZ, they rarely disappoint, with lots of research going into their products, I was having difficulty drinking enough water, and we were out of juice with hubby complaining!!

The bottle itself is glass - which I love - I try and avoid plastic bottles if possible, and also like that I can reuse the cleaned out bottle. This is not to mention the fact that it fits with the Barkers branding, and the old fashioned, excellent, honest quality image that they have earned well and truly. It shows on the front that it is lower sugar, and makes 25 glasses. The nutritional information is there on the back too - and I noted it is also no sodium - excellent!

I chose to try this citrus lemonade first, and hoped as the name suggested, it would be more of an old fashioned type lemonade. We had no soda water or similar in the house, so I opted to have it with still cold water, and proceeded to make it up to the instructions - 1 part citrus syrup to 6 parts water. The end result was a great tasting, lightly citrus, but also just the right amount of sweetness drink. My hubby, who is the soda/juice/not water drinker in our house usually also decided to try and glass - coming to the same conclusion as me - that it is a really refreshing and tasty drink.

Over the next few days we experimented with the syrup, changing the strength, adding soda water and then sparkling water, and even freezing it in ice cubes, so I can add them to my water bottle and get a taste of it in there. There honestly was a multitude of ways this soda syrup could be utilised, and we even used it in place of lemon juice in a recipe as we had run out, and shhhhhh, it is great in a gin and tonic - just a splash though!!

Overall, this is a really great syrup which ticks so many boxes for me - being better for me with a low sugar content, great tasting and versatile, good value and reusable packaging. Huge thumbs up for this Barkers - love to see other flavours too!

I am a fan of both sodas and anything citrus so right away I knew I wanted to try this one. the Barkers brand is an excellent one and I have already enjoyed several products from the range so I was pretty sure this would also be high quality. Barkers Citrus Lemonade ticked boxes right away but also being low calorie and using a natural sweetener. Guilt-free treats are always a winner in my books! The bottle also says that it makes up 25 glasses so that makes it a good price, especially when you have a budget to consider.

The recommended ratio is 1 part syrup to 6 parts soda water so I followed these specifications. The result was a really nice, light and refreshing lemonade drink. The amount of artificial sweetener was just right so the drink didn't taste overly sweet (a reason I normally don't buy the name brand lemonades). I would compare the taste to a more traditional American lemonade which was exactly what I was hoping for. My partner also enjoyed this one, finding it refreshing and enjoyable. He did prefer this over the Dry Cola that we were also lucky enough to review.

Overall, a thumbs up from us and one that I will certainly be buying in the future.

I don't drink a lot of water as I just don't like it. I needed something that doesnt have a lot of sugar in it as thats also not good for me. I wanted to give this one a go and see how it compares to others drinks I have been drinking. As soon as it turned up to my house it was opened, it smells great and reading the back to work out how much to use 1 part syrup to 6 parts water. I think we pouring my first I stuffed up my math somehow it didn't taste too good, but gave it another go. 1/4 syrup in my glass and 3/4 water that gave it a god taste and off it went.

Now to find out if I could use it in my bottle without using too much. Oops poured in too much this gave it a really bad taste, so as I drunk it I added water each time. It got down to half a bottle and I added more water and the drink become yummy. so I have found the perfect ratio for my drink bottle. Too much of the syrup and my mouth felt weird, like I just drunk a bottle of syrup on its own, but when you get the correct ratio it seems to be a nice drink when you don't like water.

This is a better chocie for the kids aswell I can use a very small amount just to flavour the water a tiny and they are happy thinking they are having juice. It does make me feel like its a upgrade of a syrup I use to get given as a child, but this taste better. The price isnt too bad, will see how long it lasts with me using it in my bottle before I decide if it worth buying for that purpose again or just as single glass drinks.

Growing up I wasn't too keen on drinking plain water much to my parent's frustration, they would buy the bottles of Barker's concentrated juices such as Orange and Barley and I would happily drink those. I have gotten better with drinking water but I am still quite partial to fizzy and juices. Recently I have been trying to cut back on my sugar intake, and I saw that this Citrus Lemonde Soda Syrup was described as being lite in sugar, so I put my request in to review a bottle of the product.

I received my KIWIreviews box and to my delight I had been chosen to review this product. The bottle is very easy to distinguish as a product from Barker's of Geraldine, as their labels really stand out. The front of the bottle states that you can make 25 glasses of lemonade from the bottle, for the price of the bottle I think this is a really good deal. The main things that appealed to me was that there is no artificial sweetener used which means less sugar, and low in calories.

A couple of days after receiving the soda syrup I went for a large walk and came home quite thirsty wanting something to drink as a pick me up. I picked up the bottle and followed the directions to put 1 part soda syrup with 6 parts soda water, I measured and gave the mixture a stir and then proceeded to take a mouthful. Oh my goodness it was exactly what I needed, there was no doubt that this was a zesty, citrus lemonade and it was absolutely delicious! I then tried making the mixture up using tap water and I was surprised to find I liked that just as much. When my partner got home and saw the bottle open he tried a drink but it was a tad too strong for him.

I highly recommend having a bottle or two in your household as the soda syrup is high quality, value for money, tastes fantastic, and is proudly made in New Zealand.

Spending most of my time living out of a caravan means I need to find things that take up as little space as possible but make plenty of food or drink. Concentrates, dehydrated stuff and things like rice are basically my food of choice so this was a bit of a compromise for me. I also have found over the years that I don't really like drink syrups very much. Too sweet, sticky and they leave me feeling a bit sick in the guts if I drink too much on a hot day.

Taking the advise of a mate, I worked out the suggested dilution rates, then diluted it again. I used an old juice bottle that normally held 3 litres and worked out that with the suggestion of a 6:1 ratio, I would need about 420ml of the syrup to make the drink at full strength, so instead I went for half of the bottle, 355ml. (The bottle holds 710ml of syrup.)

The results were exactly as I hoped. Mildly sweet with a bit of tartness, a really nice subtle orange and lemon flavour, and easy to drink without overloading my system on sugar or leaving that sorta slimy feeling on my tongue I get if I drink sweet drinks. A couple of the lads on site had a glass and they agreed it was really nice. Only one complained it was a bit weak.

Would I buy it again? Already have!

I love a refreshing lemonade on a hot summer day. When I was offered some Barker's Citrus Lemonade Classic Soda Syrup to review I had high expectations. I have tried several Barker's products and they have never let me down. Looking at the label I saw it contained 28% citrus juice and was lower in sugar than regular syrups. That has to be a bonus for me.

I am pleased to report that my family didn't notice the lack of sugar and we have been enjoying the syrup three different ways. The first way was as it was intended, as a soda syrup. It is so easy with our Soda Stream that we have been enjoying it most nights. The second was with still water. I kept a jug made up in the fridge. The final way was as an ice block which the children enjoyed when they got home from school. I also admit to enjoying the ice blocks too.

I like that, as I am making up my own drinks, I can have them as fizzy as I want. I can also adjust the strength to suit me. It is also much better on the environment than purchasing ready made drinks as there is less packaging and less product to transport.

I was surprised how long the bottle lasted given that we were using it most days. I am sure I made up more than 5 litres and I am a sweet tooth. This makes it good value for money and a healthier and more natural alternative to other soft drinks. I will be definitely be buying more of this.

My daughter and I were doing a very hot, very dusty cleanup of a garage and the tropical heat of the afternoon did not help. We had intended to try the lemonade when we got back to her place as she has a SodaStream, but the need for a cold drink was urgent and we had left the syrup in the fridge - so why not try it with ordinary tap water? To say that this was a good decision would be an understatement. It was much more than that; it was awesome! We both took a long draught from our glasses then simultaneously said Wow!

It not only quenched our thirst, it also energised us for our return to work with a citrus burst that struck just the right balance between sweet and sour. The acidity was not too strong- in fact, we went on to pour a second glass apiece as it was so nice. It does contain some sugar, but nowhere near the amount you would get in a regular syrup, and the lack of sugar was impossible to spot. We would not have been aware that it was a lower calorie version if we had not read the label.

When we returned to my daughter's house, we asked the children to sample it. This time, however, we used the SodaStream to make a fizzy drink. The adults tried it too in case there was any noticeable difference between the still and the fizzy versions, but we thought it was equally successful both ways. The children, who tried only the fizzy mix, both loved it and would have had more if we had let them.

We liked the way the sweetness and lemon strength could be adjusted for individual preferences. Mr Eight wanted his a little stronger but Miss Six said hers was too sweet and she wanted more water! We had mixed the drink in a jug so they had both been given the same proportions to start with. This is something you cannot do with premixed drinks, so this is a real point in favour for using a syrup and mixing your own.

The price is excellent - the bottle makes 25 x 200 ml drinks so that works out at under 24c per drink (plus the cost of the added soda, of course). which is the equivalent of more than three 1.5 litre bottles of lemonade. Given that this product is better for you as it contains real fruit as well as being lower in sugar, it has to be the better buy. Both my daughter and I agree that this is one product we will be buying again.