The Best British Cordials and Squash in the UK (2026)

Published 2 November 2026

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Cordial is one of the few British drinks that most households keep in the cupboard for years and never think about. It is a few centimetres of syrup in the bottom of a glass, topped up with water from the tap. This guide is about which bottles are worth putting there, and about one thing on the back label that is easy to read wrongly: the dilution.

Cordial versus squash

In the UK there is no legal line between the two. “Cordial” and “squash” are labelling convention, not a defined category with its own rules, so what follows is how the words tend to be used rather than anything you can hold a bottle to.

• Cordials tend to be sold as the more concentrated, more traditional product: made with real flowers or fruit, and usually full sugar. Elderflower is the archetype.
• Squash tends to be the mainstream everyday product, the one on the bottom shelf of every supermarket, and it is very often no added sugar.

Plenty of bottles blur the two. The Ribena and Robinsons bottles below call themselves squash, the Belvoir and Bottlegreen ones call themselves cordial, and the drink in the glass is, in practice, much the same thing: concentrate, plus water.

The dilution decides the sugar

The Soft Drinks Industry Levy is the useful piece of context here, because it is the reason the dilution instruction on a bottle matters more than it looks.

HMRC’s guidance says the levy is assessed on the drink “in its ready to drink or diluted form”. For a concentrate, that means the dilution ratio on the label is what decides the sugar per 100ml (HMRC Notice 3). A drink is liable at 5g or more of sugar per 100ml. The lower rate covers 5g to under 8g and the higher rate covers 8g or more. From 1 April 2026 those rates are £2.08 per 10 litres (lower) and £2.78 per 10 litres (higher).

Two of the bottles below publish figures that put this in practice:

• Belvoir Farm’s own page gives 4.2g of sugars per 100ml when its elderflower cordial is diluted 1:10 (Belvoir Farm).
• Retailer nutrition panels for Bottlegreen’s elderflower cordial show about 4.4g of sugars per 100ml diluted 1:15. That figure comes from retailer listings, not from the brand.

Both sit under 5g on their own stated dilution. To be clear, that is an observation about two numbers, not a claim about what either producer pays or doesn’t pay under the levy. We haven’t looked into that and it isn’t what this section is for.

The practical point is for your glass. Those figures only hold at the stated ratio. Pour it stronger than the label says, and you are drinking more sugar per 100ml than the panel does. The same goes for the no-added-sugar squashes: follow the label’s dilution, particularly for the double-strength ones, which are made to be used in smaller amounts.

How we picked these

This is a research-led roundup, not a tasting. We do not run a tasting panel and won’t pretend we have.

What we did instead: started from British cordial and squash brands with a long trading history, checked each brand’s own account of what is in the bottle, and kept only products with a listing on Amazon UK, the only shop we link to. Where a brand’s ownership has changed, we say so. Where sources disagree on a detail, such as the fruit content of the raspberry cordial, we leave the number out.

No prices and no ratings. Prices on multipacks move constantly, so use the live price on the listing. No awards either: we haven’t traced any to the awarding body.

What we left out

Rocks Organic and Thorncroft are both British cordial makers. We couldn’t find either reliably listed on Amazon UK, and that is the only shop we link to, so they are mentioned here rather than listed as picks.

The picks

Bottlegreen Elderflower Cordial is the sensible first bottle. Bottlegreen is made in the Cotswolds and was founded in 1989 by Kit and Shireen Morris; it is now part of SHS Group. The ingredients line is short: sugar, spring water, elderflowers and citric acid. It is the closest thing to a default elderflower cordial, and the one to measure the others against.

Belvoir Farm Organic Elderflower Cordial is the same idea from a different place. Belvoir Farm is in Leicestershire and run by the Manners family, and its own history has it making elderflower cordial since 1984. Belvoir’s own ingredients line for the organic version runs organic sugar, water, fresh organic elderflowers, fresh organic lemons, pressed organic lemon juice and citric acid — so the lemon is the obvious difference from Bottlegreen. Two notes on the listing: it is the organic cordial, and it is a pack of six 500ml bottles. Belvoir’s standard single bottle exists but was not buyable on Amazon UK when we checked. Keep it in the fridge once it is open.

Belvoir Farm Raspberry & Lemon Cordial is the fruit one. It is made with pressed raspberry, strawberry and lemon juices alongside sugar. A word on the listing: this is a pack of six 500ml bottles, and we couldn’t find a single-bottle listing. That is a lot of raspberry if you only wanted to try it, but it is the version that is actually on Amazon UK. (We haven’t quoted a fruit percentage, because the sources we found disagree.)

Mr Fitzpatrick’s Elderflower and Apple Cordial is elderflower with a twist: apple juice (10% from concentrate) alongside sugar, water, citric acid and natural flavourings. The name comes from Mr Fitzpatrick’s, the temperance bar in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. The brand also sells a no-added-sugar version, and the link here is the standard full-sugar one.

Robinsons Double Strength Blackcurrant No Added Sugar is the supermarket benchmark. Robinsons is a Britvic brand, and Carlsberg completed its acquisition of Britvic in January 2025. The listing says no artificial colours or flavours and no added sugar. It is double strength, so it takes less per glass than a standard squash; follow the label’s dilution rather than the habit of a lifetime.

Ribena Blackcurrant Squash No Added Sugar is the blackcurrant institution. Ribena has been owned by Suntory since 2013, and the squash is made at Coleford in the Forest of Dean. The listing says it is sweetened with aspartame and acesulfame K, which is what is in it, and the 1.5L bottle is the large size. Ribena’s FAQ gives the dilution as 1 part squash to 4 parts water.

Ribena No Added Sugar Winter Spice is the seasonal one: a limited-edition blackcurrant squash with spices and no added sugar. It is seasonal, so it may come and go from stock, and it is best treated as a winter bottle to grab when you see it. It is also the nearest thing we could link to a mulled winter cordial. Belvoir Farm makes a Mulled Winter cordial too, but we couldn’t confirm its Amazon listing, so it isn’t linked.

What to buy first

One bottle, no idea where to start: Bottlegreen. It is the one true single bottle among the elderflowers here, and the cleanest introduction to the category. Belvoir Farm is the other classic and the one with the lemon — but on Amazon UK it currently comes six at a time, so it is a bigger first commitment.

An everyday jug for the family: Ribena or Robinsons, the no-added-sugar versions. Just read the dilution on the bottle before the first pour.

Something fruitier: the Belvoir raspberry and lemon, once you are happy with buying six.

Something different: Mr Fitzpatrick’s, if elderflower alone is too plain.

Elderflower cordial isn’t only a drink with water. It is a decent partner for gin: a splash in a gin and tonic is a well-worn combination, and it works just as well topped up with soda or one of the tonic waters and mixers in our mixers guide. If you want something with no alcohol at all but a bit more depth than a squash, our guides to non-alcoholic spirits and kombucha cover the other end of the shelf.

The honest summary: cordial and squash are labelling habits, not legal categories, and the dilution on the label is the number that matters. Pick the flavour you like, pour it the way the bottle says, and don’t assume a sugar figure applies if you’ve poured it stronger.