FAQs
Buying Folkington's
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GENERAL QUESTIONS
Yes, of course. Most drinks businesses do.In the world of Fruit and Veg, it’s survival of the prettiest.The good-looking stuff is sold in shops and the wonky stuff goes to be made into juice, ice cream, pies, soups and so on. All different shapes and sizes go to make a Folkington’s. We’ve always judged on taste, not looks.
All our fruit is pressed (or squeezed in the case of citrus fruits) locally to where it is grown. By which we mean generally within half a day’s drive of where the fruit has been picked from the trees or vines. That means it doesn’t have to travel far before all the goodness and freshness is quickly extracted from the fruit while it is still fresh. So for example our pomme fruit (a generic word for apples and pears) is pressed in Herefordshire and our Lemons just outside Palermo in Sicily.
No. None of our juices are made from concentrated juices. The expression on our bottles “not from concentrate” means that the juices are exactly as they are when they come from the fruit, with nothing added or taken away.
Concentrated juice is made by processing the fruit juice at high temperatures to remove most of the vapour and aroma and ends up as a thick syrup. Drinkable fruit juice is later created by adding back the same amount of water originally removed. We’ll have none of that! We just use the juice as it comes from the fruit without tinkering around with it.
Fruit varieties can differ enormously in taste. For example some apples are sweeter than others, some lemons have a more powerful taste and some fruit varieties have such distinctive qualities that make them unique and wonderful for juicing. We reckon that once a customer likes one of our drinks, she or he’d expect it to taste just as good all the time and we can only achieve that by always using the same variety of fruit.
Like wine, you get good years and not such good years, depending on the weather. This is less evident in fruit grown in warmer climates like Southern Europe, the Tropics or colder climates like Canada where our cranberries grow. However, particularly in Britain where our summers can vary so much from year to year, you can expect some variation in the sweetness and acidity of apples and pears and this will obviously affect the taste of the juice.
We always get our fruit juice direct from either the growers or the people they use to actually press the fruit. We don’t buy from intermediaries or brokers. This is fundamental to the traceability that supports the provenance of our juices.
Any fruit grown in one country can taste quite different from one grown in another even if it is the same fruit variety. The main reasons for this are soil and climate differences and you’ll witness this every time you buy two bottles of wine made from the same grape variety but from different countries. So sourcing the same fruit varieties from the same growers gives us the best chance of providing consistency in the quality and taste of the fruit juice. But just as importantly, we buy our fruit from farms and businesses whose owners’ and staff’s livelihoods depend on the loyalty of their customers coming back each year. And this helps them develop their businesses for the benefit of their communities. This is a cornerstone of the sustainable aspect of our business and the Folkington’s brand.
DRINKS
Because we use such high quality fruit juices, we don’t use any additives like flavours, colours or stabilisers. Nor do we use any artificial sweeteners, preservatives or any other unnecessary chemicals. We add Vitamin C (which is technically classed as an additive) to some products to act as an anti-oxidant to make sure they don’t tint a bit darker over time. And some of the sweeter fruit juices like pear juice need a touch more acidity, so we add a little citric acid.
None of our fruit juices have any added sugar. Only our Garden range of pressés, our mixers and also our old fashioned pink lemonade and elderflower drink have added sugar, since it is of course a core ingredient in the recipe. Of course you can see on the label if there is any added sugar under the heading “ingredients”.
It tells you how much sugar is in each 100ml of the drink. If no sugar has been added to the drink, then the word “sugars” just means the sugar that occurs naturally in the original fruit. In the Pink Lemonade and Elderflower drink, most of the sugar in the drink will have been added to the drink, since you don’t get much naturally occurring sugar out of a lemon or elderflower!
Pop! You’ll be familiar with that sound when you open a jam jar or a jar of sauce, for example. It’s the same with our drinks and means that a vacuum is released when the top comes off. Not only has that vacuum kept the drinks fresh but it was created when we gently pasteurised the juices which will have killed off any bugs. Because they don’t like it hot!
All our bottled juices and drinks are given at least 18 months shelf life, expressed as a best before date. Once you have opened them, we recommend you keep them in the fridge and drink them within three days. They are so delicious, we don’t think you’ll find that too much of a hardship.
No, and of course we hold certificates from our suppliers that confirm this.
By law we have to tell you on the label if our drinks contain any allergens, the most common of which include nuts, soya, milk and other dairy products. You can see the full list on the Food Standards Agency web site.
None of our drinks contain allergens and all our suppliers have certified that their materials are free from allergens. However, if you are allergic or have intolerances to any of the ingredients that you can see on the label then we recommend that you take advice from your medical practitioner.
Yes, none of our drinks contain any gluten, and they are all produced in an environment where there isn't a risk of cross contamination.from farms and businesses whose owners’ and staff’s livelihoods depend on the loyalty of their customers coming back each year. And this helps them develop their businesses for the benefit of their communities. This is a cornerstone of the sustainable aspect of our business and the Folkington’s brand.
You can see from the nutrition information on the label how many grams of sugar exist in every 100ml of drink. If you are diabetic you will be aware of the limited amount of sugar you should consume each day and we ask you to bear this in mind before deciding to enjoy one of our drinks.
YES.
- Our Juices are pasteurised.
- Our Tonic waters, ginger ale and soda waters are not pasteurised.
ENVIRONMENTAL
We have been certified as carbon neutral, after bening independently assessed under the GHG protocol by Blue Marble
To do this we calculated all of our CO2 emissions which come from:
1: Transporting products to our warehouse and then storing them - Scope 3 (upstream)
2: Our office and then delivering the products to our customers - Scopes 1, 2 & 3 (downstream)
Then we invest in a South American rainforest protection project that offsets the impact of all these emissions.
This neutralises the impact our business has on the climate. We continue with our commitment to reduce our CO2 emissions by keeping food miles down and using smarter logistics.
Yes, we are continually working to reduce our CO2 emissions in a multitude of ways, from using smarter logistics in our supply chain, reducing food miles and using sea freight. Since 2021 this has resulted in a 9% reduction of our CO2 emissions per can / bottle.
Yes, and in a unique way. We use traditional Russet apples that are rarely picked for the shops, so would otherwise be left to drop and rot. Russet apples are often used to help pollinate other apple trees, for example, Cox apples. When Cox apples are picked, the farmers don’t pick the pollinator Russets at the same time because the shops often don’t want them. So Folkington’s steps in... pays the farmers a bit extra, and gets these Russets picked and juiced. And saved.
We keep our Food Miles to a minimum by using as much British-grown fruit as possible. And we get all our citrus fruits from Europe rather than from further afield like the Americas and South Africa. On average 43% come from Britain, and all our citrus fruits (46%) come from Europe.
Yes. And unlike most other drinks that have sticky paper labels and metal caps that partly stay on the empty bottle, you can easily place each component into a different recycling bin. The cap goes into the metal bin, and you can remove the plastic sleeve and/ or labels by inserting a sharp knife between it and the bottle. You can recycle the plastic sleeve and labels with other plastic items and the bare glass bottle in the glass bin. There are instructions on the back of each of our 1 litre bottles and remember to take care with sharp objects.
Our aim, wherever possible is to work with local businesses to supply the goods and services we need. In 2019, 65% of all services supplied to us were from local businesses.