Traditional Cordial

Thorncroft Traditional Cordials are plant based drinks, not fruit cordials, with a hedgerow theme and an emphasis on fine natural flavour. They are all also associated with health benefits – hardly surprising as most of them have their roots in ancient herbal medicine. Choose from Elderflower, Nettle, Pink Ginger, Rosehip, and Cranberry and Hibiscus.

Thorncroft TraditionalCordials are extremely concentrated. Many dilute-to-taste plant based drinks are thin and watery, sometimes as low as 3 parts cordial diluted to 1 part water, and rarely above 8 to 1. Thorncroft Cordials are so concentrated they only need to be diluted at a rate of between 12 and 15 to 1.

This is not because they contain more sugar – most cordials contain similar amounts – but because of the high levels of other ingredients, which allows them to taste good even when the sugar levels are diluted down as far as one third of the level found in standard fizzy drinks. This means that a bottle of Thorncroft Cordial is great value, as it makes as much as 5 litres of drink. NOW AVAILABLE AT DAVID JONES stores throughout Australia.

Cranberry & Hibiscus

The benefits of drinking cranberry juice are widely known – but how do you make cranberry juice taste good? Most mainstream brands dilute it and add lots of sugar, while others disguise the flavour more or less successfully by adding other fruit flavours.

At Thorncroft we approached the question with a bit of lateral thinking, and blended concentrated cranberry juice with an equally concentrated form of the Egyptian national drink, Hibiscus Tea.

Hibiscus tea is brewed from the swollen calyx of the flower of Hibiscus Sabdariffa, which yields a deep red, fruity and tart tea with a distinctive aroma, which blends superbly with the flavour of Cranberry to give a mix that is distinctive, flavoursome, and refreshing.

Hibiscus tea is said to reduce blood pressure, to help you to keep cool in hot weather, and to aid in the removal of toxins, which is probably why it has a reputation as a hangover remedy.

Elderflower

Thorncroft Elderflower Cordial is based on an ancient recipe at least 400 years old. It’s special aroma recalls lychees and Muscat grapes, and it is thought by many to be the most deliciously refreshing drink known to man.

Thorncroft Elderflower however tastes unlike any other, because we use only the petals of the elderflowers, and those in large quantities to give a uniquely floral flavour with none of the herbaceous flavour derived from the flower stalks. We have a unique process for separating out the petals from the green parts of the flower umbel, which was recently featured by BBC Good Food Live.

Elderflowers are picked from our plantations at Leatherhead and in Hampshire, and from the wild by a large team of mainly Gypsy pickers. We need twenty tonnes of elderflower petals every year to keep up with demand.

Thorncroft Elderflower Cordial won the number one drink accolade in the BBC Good Food Awards, being voted best drink. But it’s not just a pretty taste. Like most old herbal drinks elderflower cordial is also said to have remarkable beneficial properties
 

Pink Ginger

Our version of the old Victorian favourite is the only ginger cordial drink on the market made directly from cold pressed fresh root ginger. It has a superbly refreshing flavour, not at all fiery, quite different from other ginger drinks, and much closer to home-made ginger beer.

Ginger is carminative, soothing to the digestive system, and particularly good in counteracting nausea. Expectant mums, this is for you.

Nettle

Nettle Ale was another favourite of old England. Old brews however were made by boiling up a dozen or more common herbs – weeds, really – for several hours, during in which any freshness of flavour was boiled away.

Gypsy pickers collect the tips of young nettles from fields around Thorncroft Vineyard in Leatherhead in Spring each year.

Like most old soft drinks (or “small ales”), Nettle ale was made as much for its health benefits, and nettles are known to be useful in autoimmune problems as diverse as hay fever and arthritis.

Roseship

Rosehip cordial is perhaps the simplest of all the Thorncroft Cordials, just good old-fashioned rosehips with sugar and a bit of aronia (chokeberry) juice, for added body. Rosehips used to be used by herbalists for their cooling and astringent properties, but nowadays they are valued more for their authentic hedgerow flavour and for the high amount of Vitamin C they contain.

Rosehip Cordial is our biggest seller in Japan.