Robinsons squash has been part of The Trading Post's range for a long time. French sirop doesn't match a British cordial for flavour and refreshment. Perhaps it's because we have drink fruit squash from an early age and so it gets 'hard-wired' into our experience. Either way, a long glass of Robinsons is always a treat.
When discussing our most iconic products as part of our 20th anniversary celebrations, we often concentrate on the link between The Trading Post and the brand - how we have supplied X number of bottles, or how we put these icons of UK cuisine into supermarkets, bars and households across France (and wider Europe). Today though I just want to talk about how we talk about squash...
If, like me, you regularly have to translate descriptions of British products into French, you will see 'squash' repeatedly mistranslated as 'gourd.' This, however, is not just a quirk of online translation tools (unlike when Google Translate decided 'frozen chicken' was 'poulet La Reine de Neige.' Even British people aren't sure what to call squash. Apparently the difference between squash and cordial is a largely due to the same key factor that demarcates the difference between jam, 'extra jam' and preserve: sugar ratio. However, in common usage, cordial and squash are used practically interchangeably. In some areas of the UK, these words are joined by other terms; dilute, diluting juice (Scottish English) and water juice (Scottish Isles). To confound things further, some people colloquially refer to squash as simply 'juice' which is technically incorrect (as no squash is pure fruit juice) whilst it does seem to acceptable to officially label a squash as "high juice" if it contains a high amount of actual fruit juice (in addition to sugar). Last, but not least (and probably also not last) there are many products which refer to themselves as a 'fruit drink,' although these are often pre-diluted versions of a squash drink.
All of the above makes me want to take Wiley's classic grime track "Wot Do U Call It? and re-record it with lyrics referring to the many disparate terms used in British English to refer to a fruit-flavoured, sugary beverage which requires the addition of water prior to consumption.
What do you call it, squash? (What do you call it?)
What do you call it, squash?
Squash?
What do you call it, cordial?
What do you call it, cordial?
Cordial?
What do you call it, diluting-juice?
What do you call it, diluting-juice?
Diluting-juice?
Tell us what you call it then
So. In conclusion. Robinsons squash/cordial/diluting juice/juice/water juice/sirop/mixer is as iconic to British non-alcoholic beverages as Wiley is to British grime music. I'm not sure how/why we came to this final statement, but here we are.
Oh, and there will be a bottle of Robinsons 'squash' in every Trading Post winner's hamper this November. That, at least, makes sense.
