Apple Flavoured 5Alive

The expression may be "dead as a dodo" but if you've seen the singing and dancing dodo on the 5Alive adverts, the words that spring to mind are more likely to be lively, energy and fun. Well, I was dancing around the room when I first saw the name 5Alive because it's yet another one of those products I remember from my childhood that get me feeling all nostalgic ! The retro Easter eggs from Nestlé got me stupidly excited and 5Alive is another one that takes me back to my youth as a child of the 80s. If this carries on, I really will have to find myself some batwing jumpers, skipants, legwarmers and pink pixie boots ! (Oh those were the days !)

I'm always a bit worried that things won't be as good as I remember them, especially as your tastes change as you get older and you tend to look back at the past through rose-coloured spectacles. But I was pleasantly surprised by the fresh taste of 5Alive. It was as good as I remember.

Advertised as a"fun and fruit-packed breakfast juice drink", I remember that I always saw it as a healthier option to orange squash or fizzy drinks but not quite as healthy as pure orange juice. Well, the website tells us that each 5Alive juice drink is fortified with vitamins and minerals and contains no artificial flavours, colours or preservatives. As you would expect from the label "juice drink", this is not a pure fruit juice and it does contain a relatively high level of sugar - 15.3g in one 250ml serving. But you'll need some energy to start the day and as long as you don't guzzle it all day long, it makes a refreshing and thirst-quenching change from the usual juices on offer.

It may be called apple flavour but as the name suggests, there are actually five fruits packed in each carton (but no, that doesn't mean you can drink one glass to cover your 5-a-day recommended fruit portions !) : it's 30% apple blended with grapes, pears, kiwi fruits and lemon. You definitely get an apple taste but then your tastebuds do a little bit of jiggling around (like the dodo !) and try to work out what other fruity tangs they can detect.

The new apple blend joins three other 5Alive flavours, called Citrus, Berry and Tropical. As they contain up to 42% real juice content and are fortified with vitamins and minerals, I'm quite happy for my kids to drink a glass every day, for breakfast or as a healthier alternative to the all too frequently additive-packed squashes and fizzy drinks.

Hmmm I wonder what the next product from my childhood will be that makes its way on to the supermarket shelves - I can't wait ! (And I also can't stop singing the Um Bongo advert now - who remembers that ?! All together now ... Way down deep in the middle of the Congo, a python picked a passion fruit a guava and a mango, He stuck it with the others and he danced a dainty tango, The rhino said "I know ! We'll call it Um Bongo" Um bongo um bongo they drink it in the Congo ... I wonder if our kids will still remember the 5Alive dodo in 30 years' time !)

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : 99p for 1 litre