Caleño Light and Zesty

Pineapple was strongly to the fore when I opened the bottle, with washes of other tropical fruit in a combination that was almost reminiscent of Lilt. It’s a very sweet fruity taste and I felt the sharpness of lemon – the zest promised by the strapline – wasn’t sufficiently delivered. It’s pleasant enough, but rather too reminiscent of one of the tropical blend fruit juices to really justify its price. I was also slightly irritated by their explanation of why the drink comes in a 50cl bottle, rather than the more normal 70cl (‘By reducing our bottle size from the standard 70cl to 50cl we’re able to lower the price of Caleño to £18’). That seems to employ a sleight-of hand to suggest it’s overall a cheaper drink, whereas actually it’s exactly the same cost as, say, Seedlip: it’s just sold in smaller quantities.