I was at leeds too, at some elcture and at the soc fair and craft fair. although I live locally. try to drink roses lime cordial,(no sugar) or fentimans botanically brewed soft drinks (rose lemonade is to die for) the sweeteners thing is beyond disgusting.
and someone tried to rip you off for the lemon curd, £2.50, tops, even in waitrose
The main reason sugar is added to already-sweet drinks is because they sell better that way... but you knew that.
The other reason is that, for some people, artificial sweeteners have a bad aftertaste, which is masked by the sugar.
What I do when faced with too-sweet drinks is to find a clean empty bottle and fill it 1/2 to 3/4 with water, then add the sweet drink. Diluting it really helps.
opus: There was no Fentiman's to be had where I had my haunts, or I'd have stuck to that (I like that stuff, probably too much for my own good); and when you look at lemon curd in the airport duty-free shop, you can count on being ripped off (and it was Scottish lemon curd, anyways).
Chris: I can understand sugar only, and sweetener only, but why make something sweet even sweeter with sweeteners? And for me, diluting these drinks won't work - it will make the yucky sweetener taste stand out even more. I tend to dilute un-sweetenered things, though.
So I had to go home without a stash of teabags to replenish our quickly dwindling supply of Yorkshire tea (which really, as it promises, works splendidly in hard water), and we'll have to buy PG tips or something in a turkish grocery store when we run out.
Yorkshire Tea is actually blended differently for different water tables, so if you live in a hard water zone, you need to buy from a hard water zone. They take it seriously! But PG is a next best if you're buying bags at all rather than loose leaf.
Have you tried Yorkshire Tea decaff?
Just back from two weeks in Poland and spent the whole time drinking it. Tastes a bit odd with UHT milk. My hosts couldn't stand it so I got the box to myself. I tried it with normal milk but even with the same hard water and possibly lead pipes it didn't taste quite like it does in Britain.
Is it possible to post tea internationally? Or to order online?
Heather