Ribena
Reviews and Complaints

The paper straws are no good they go to soggy and u can't drink from them

Your squash has been for a long time the only squash I have been able to drink and the most expensive, all the cheaper models are unpalatable for me. as I am allergic to sweeteners.
However yesterday I purchased the Blackcurrant squash from Tesco, , now I have to avoid all squashes and drinks that say No added sugar, diet, max etc.
but this one had no such label so I deemed it safe to drink, but NO, after consumption I got stomach cramps which is associated with my allergy to sweeteners, . So I then proceeded to check the ingredients on the bottle and yep in font 4, really small writing it says Sugar and sweeteners Please Please if you are going to put these poisons in can you put it in bigger font and also give me a warning on the front of the bottle. So now I have no Squashes available for me to drink,

Is it correct that the Mitchell and Butler brand have been told to serve the KIDS Ribena mini brands despite being out of date ... Apparently this has been endorsed by yourself as "due to lockdown it is perfectly acceptable to serve them out of date " ... By all accounts the drink knows we have been in lockdown and the shelf life self extended ?!

I brought a 1.5 L bottle of Ribena blackcurrant no added sugar juice drink a week ago. I have used half of the bottle it has now turned dark brown and tastes horrible the expiry date on the bottle is Sep 2020. I do not think it should have gone like this in such a short space of time. I would like you to respond to this complaint by email to [protected]@yahoo.co.uk
Regards.
Mr Richard Ginn.

Purchased a bottle of ribena yesterday shortly after purchase I drank half the bottle whilst drinking something hit the back of my throat it was large chunk of mould i looked inside the bottle there are loads of small mould particles floating in the bottle. I have had sickness and diarreah since. This is totally unacceptable! before realising there was mould inside the bottle i offered some to my toddler who luckily declined as he could have been very ill!

I purchased one of these 2 days ago fed it to my 1 year old baby within the hour she is vomiting and has severe diarrhoea pain ! I put the drink in the fridge and today 2 days later attempted to get her to drink more as not stopped vomiting still, while emptying into her baby cup I saw a huge item come out like rolled up paper and the juice has hundreds of things floating in it ! It's disgusting! My one year old baby has been poorly for nearly 3 days after drinking this drink and shows no sign of improving! I will never allow my children to drink this drink ever again and will be tell everyone to stay away from your products! I now have a very poorly baby who's badly dehydrated !

Right I'm just curious as to your packaging as it states there are no artificial flavours and it contains sucralose which is artificial and it does flavour the drink.
I just wonder how you get away with lieing to your customers. I find this an absolute disgrace when your packaging is clearly lieing to the general public. How do you intend to resolve this issue as I would not drink your product if I had known I had been lied to.
Regards Corey
Email [protected]@gmail.com

I have been drinking Ribena for 20 plus years. A month ago I made a drink to my normal concentration. The drink tasted disgusting and completely different.
I thought it must have been the water so waited a couple of days to realise it was the same horrible taste.
I contacted my company who came out to test my water. The results were fine. It was only then I checked the internet to discover they had changed the receipe and changed sugar for sweetners. I think it is a shame the loyal consumers were not given a say in this. I am guessing the majority would have been happy to pay more for a drink they love. Especially seeing as you already provided a light alternative! I am very dissapointed in Ribena and will never be purchasing from them again. I hope the loss is customers makes them realise that maybe we should have had a say in the sugar tax and pricing before changing the recipe.

What a disappointment that you have decided not to allow customers the choice of Ribena without artificial or reduced sugar content. Don't spin me the patronising health benefits - I'm an adult, well educated individual (as most of the UK are), yet suddenly I can no longer choose to purchase products I have enjoyed for many years. This is about choice - why are you treating us like children that need to be mollycoddled. Well, I'm just another loyal customer lost, the sad thing is I'll probably always miss that original (and best) Ribena taste.

What a shame you've ruined a great drink by adding sweeteners. Why would you do this when you already have a sweetener-laden version. We've been drinking Ribena pretty much all our lives. We're adults and can choose whether or not we drink sugar and also control the amount of it. Why didn't you just increase the cost to cover the sugar tax and let grown up people make their own decisions. As you've realised, we hate sweeteners, and can detect them in anything we eat and drink.

Hi, without knowing that ribena had changed its sugar content, I went after my dinner to get a glass, filled it with water and ribena after my dinner same for over 25 years... And thought there was somthing wrong with my water.. The next night after a lovely dinner I went to get myself a glass and after I had been drinking water tea etc and hadnt noticed anything only then went on google, I typed in "have they changed the" and it automatically completed it for me to.." have they changed the taste of ribena.. I read in disbelief they have and ive bought a bottle of the s*t without knowing... I compared labels from an old bottle in the van still in disbelief and was absolutely fn fuming fuming fn fuming I shot up tesco the next day with no reciept shoved it on the counter, luckily for the manager he refunded me, and said we've had notices up for weeks about the sugar tax, I could of punched him, not for fn ribena you havnt.. K*b. I thought I am going to get ribena to change it back lol I will I fn will this a joke, are pay triple quadruple, just give me my drink after dinner, especacially as you can't even get anything nice since they done the same to robinsons summer fruits years ago.. Kept picking up bottles thinking must of picked another fn one up with a blue label, but no theres just no blue label anymore there all s*t... I then phoned my misses in brighton im in southampton, she went to the little corner shop to read the labels there for me and bought the last 12 bottles little ones at £1.69 so what no offers anymore id a payed £5 + each for em.. And will drink even if out a date... I then went around all the little shops big shops around my way but I was to late all new bottles even ones at back, reading all the nutritional labels and asking shop keepers if they have any old label ones out back.. I savour the taste still of the ones i've got putting slightly less in my drink to make them last.. Some evenings I say to my partner.. I can't believe it, what am I gonna do.. She says what what? Shes one of those no sugar in tea and 1 square of dark chocolate as a treat.. She says I thought you were gonna say something important.. She knows its important now cause she wants me to chut up about it, she says things like we can get it shipped from abroad or somthing, havnt found the answer, but defo dont buy that rubbish just aswell buy any cheap sugar free tesco lidl stuff tastes 10x better. Sort it, just give the customer choice old and new old at whatever cost just do it no imbetween.. What helm*t at ribena made that decision.. Who ultamatley made the worst decision ever.. Who? From richard parsons

ALL artificial sweeteners give me heart palpitations. You have POISONED my blackcurrent drink. You already did a version with artificial sweeteners - WHY NO CHOICE for the paying consumer? Give me back the old formula. I CANNOT DRINK THIS RUBBISH IT MAKES ME ILL. I'll pay the tax! Give me the old product back.

You are just trying to save money on the sugar tax. Please put it on the bill. I will pay it.

Presumably the new addition of sweetener to the original Ribena is to get around the sugar tax? Unfortunately it tastes disgusting, people but the original one precisely because they don't want sweetener in their diets but you have brought it in without alerting people to the fact. You can clearly taste it. I assumed you had made a mistake and mixed up the contents of the bottles when I first tasted it. Please revert back to the old recipe and just charge more to cover the tax! Come on - give people a true choice.

Hi,
I always have a big bottle of the same full sugar normal Ribena. However this week I have tasted it and it does not taste right. It is the same one I always purchase but the flavour is not right . I think that the labels must have been mixed up and this is not good at all as this product does not taste as it should and therefore is not as it is advertised. Is there anything that can be done ?
Best,
Miss Jones

Hello,
I always buy ribena for myself and husband but we have noticed it doesn't taste very nice the one that ment th be normal not low sugar one, when looking on packaging from and old bottle and a new one we bought we can see why 1/2 the amount of sugar is in it now. Which spoils the taste so would be buying anymore. Taste is false sweeter after taste.
Why have you educed it so much? I'm sure I'm not alone with what I think.
Photo I have provided is of bottles.
Perhaps you need to lower sugars slightly but you have do this too much, we have in pass tried low sugar one but we didn't like it at all!
Look forward to hearing back
Mrs Speke

I poured myself a drink from one of your cartons and I took a sip, I felt bits in my mouth and knew that wasn't right, when I looked in the cup it had green particles floating and a jelly like lump floating in it. To be sure it wasn't the cup that was dirty I then cut open the carton to find the whole carton covered in the particles and jelly like stubstance. I am disgusted that I have drunk some of it and am very worried for my health. I checked the use by date and it is November 2018 (see attached pictures) which is not even close so I would like to know what this is on the drink.

Hello I am so annoyed to say I have opened my ribena that I just brought from Tesco in Coventry I opened it and found a hair inside the lid I don't exspect to open my drink and find a hair inside it's not good at all of course I could not drink it and want something done about it please I have take pictures and I am horrified to find a drink that I usually m happy to drink has a hair in I'm not one to complain but this isn't on sorry !

I am very disappointed in the new recipe in the original Ribena. I feel very upset that the recipe has changed as it was the favourite drink in the household but since my 2 sons have become ill on the 27/02/2018 from drinking your horrible potion, I will no longer be buying the product. They both only had 2 diluted glasses of 1 part Ribena 4 parts water and within 1 hour they was projectile vomiting and the only thing that come up was your drink! I would hope to think that you are going to do something about this as we have been drinking this for years with no problems. I understand that the change may have come from the governments decision to impose a sugar tax but I would strongly recommend that you revert back to the old recipe and raise the price accordingly as McDonalds did with the coca cola they sell. I personally think people would much rather pay a little extra for a bottle of the original recipe Ribena than be sick uncontrollably.

As a regular drinker of Ribena I was surprised to find my drink this morning tasted "wrong". On checking the ingredient list I found the dreaded aspartame had been added to the sugar version.
I checked the previous bottle and there was no aspartame listed so I presume that this is a new formulation.
I, and I am sure many other people, do not like the taste of sweeteners and Ribena has been one of the few remaining untainted drinks. I am disappointed that you have followed the other drinks manufacturers and made this change. I am also annoyed that a change such as this can be done without a "new formula" sign on the bottle.

I purchased a pack of Ribena minis from the co-op for my children. I poured one out in to my toddlers cup and it had something in it that was not juice. I am quite disgusted as most people would give them straight to their children without checking it. I would like to know what or why there are things in the drinks that should not be. I will not be purchasing these again and would advise others not to or if they are going to they should check them before giving them to their children. This is awful as these drinks are meant to be for convenience when on the go. I am just glad I found it before it did any harm to my child. I have attached pictures to show that it was in date and of the juice in the cup.