Franklin & Sons Spring Rhubarb Lemonade
Yorkshire rhubarb and English apples with fresh lemon over sparkling water, sweetened with English sugar beet. It is built as a soft drink rather than as a mixer, which shows in the balance — there is more fruit here and less bite than a lemonade meant for pouring gin into.
Quick Facts
Flavour Profile
Primary Flavours
Tasting Notes
Soft rhubarb and orchard apple with the lemon arriving late, gently carbonated, and sweeter than a lemonade built for mixing.
Storage & Handling
Cool and sealed. Cold for service.
Usage
Good on its own over ice, which is what it is designed for. As a mixer it takes 150ml to 200ml over 50ml of gin or vodka, and it suits a drink meant to be gentle rather than sharp.
The Rhubarb Triangle
Forced rhubarb is grown in darkness. The crowns spend two winters in a field, are lifted into heated sheds, and then grow in the dark on the energy already stored in the root — producing stalks that are pinker, sweeter and more tender than anything grown outdoors.
West Yorkshire made an industry of it. At its height the area between Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford shipped rhubarb south by the trainload, and the tradition survives at a much smaller scale, harvested by candlelight because bright light stops the growth.
Yorkshire forced rhubarb holds protected designation of origin status, which puts it in the same legal company as Melton Mowbray pork pies and Cornish pasties.
Built as a Soft Drink
Most things in a mixer range are designed to have spirit poured into them, and taste slightly unbalanced on their own — too bitter, too sharp, waiting for something. This is the other way round.
It is sweeter and softer than a mixing lemonade because it is meant to be drunk as it is, which makes it genuinely useful for anyone not drinking. It also means it needs a small adjustment when it is used as a mixer.
Using It With Spirit
Fifty millilitres of gin or vodka into 150ml of this makes a soft, easy drink that will suit people who find a gin and tonic too bitter.
A squeeze of lemon is worth adding. The sweetness that carries it as a soft drink leaves it slightly short of acid once alcohol is in the glass, and alcohol reads as sweet in its own right.
Rhubarb and ginger is the other route. A ginger liqueur or a dash of ginger syrup makes something closer to a rhubarb and ginger gin without needing the gin.
Serving It
Cold, over plenty of ice, with a sprig of mint. Rhubarb and mint work together for the same reason rhubarb and ginger do — a soft, sweet fruit benefits from something with a sharp top note.
A wine glass suits it if it is being drunk on its own. Anyone not drinking alcohol is usually handed something in an unremarkable tumbler, and that is a small, easily fixed discourtesy.
Pro Tip
Add lemon if you are mixing rather than drinking it neat. Balanced as a soft drink it has the sweetness to stand alone, which leaves it slightly short of acid once a spirit goes in.
Top Tips
- Treat it as a soft drink first. It is one of the few in the range genuinely built for drinking on its own.
- A squeeze of lemon fixes it as a mixer. The balance shifts once there is 50ml of spirit in the glass.
- Mint is the garnish. Rhubarb and mint sit together the way rhubarb and ginger do.
Possible Substitutions
- Franklin & Sons Natural Rose Lemonade: the floral alternative in the same range
- Lemonade with a spoon of rhubarb cordial: sharper, and you set the sweetness
History & Context
Rhubarb reached Britain as a medicinal root and only became food in the nineteenth century, once cheap sugar made the stalks worth eating. West Yorkshire then built an industry on forcing it in dark sheds through the winter, an area between Wakefield, Leeds and Bradford still known as the Rhubarb Triangle, and Yorkshire forced rhubarb carries protected status today.
Common Questions
Is it a mixer or a soft drink?
A soft drink first. It is sweeter and softer than a lemonade built for mixing, which makes it genuinely good on its own and means it wants a squeeze of lemon once a spirit goes in.
What is forced rhubarb?
Rhubarb grown in the dark in heated sheds, on energy stored in the root. It comes out pinker, sweeter and more tender than field-grown, and West Yorkshire built an industry on it that still harvests by candlelight.
What spirit suits it?
Gin or vodka, at about 50ml to 150ml of lemonade. It makes a gentle drink rather than a sharp one, which suits anyone who finds a gin and tonic too bitter.
Often Used With
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits