Dandelion & Burdock

Legend has it that St Thomas Aquinas invented this curious drink from the first ingredients he found when wandering the countryside after an intense night of spiritual reflection. To me, it is a deeply evocative taste associated with childhood, when it was a favourite beverage, along with other popular 70s/80s fizzy drinks like Tizer, Cream Soda, and various Corona 'fruit'-ades. Corona were the best because they offered a 10p bounty on returned bottles, with which you could then buy yourself a decent sized bag of candy sticks or some other lurid confection.

Dandelion & Burdock disappeared off the scene for a while, becoming something you would only find in healthfood shops, by virtue of its supposed detoxifying properties. It's been making a subtle comeback recently, popping up alongside ginger beer in more upmarket pubs and cafés. I found this Fentiman's-branded version at the Blackboys Inn on Sunday. Though it lacked the syrupy texture of its undoutedly additive-laden ancestor, the robust herbal flavour was as strangely alluring as ever. I've never tried using D&B as a mixer, but would be tempted to try it with something aniseedy like Sambuca or even Absinthe - is that wrong? I think the reason this combination springs to mind is that I automatically associate Dandelion & Burdock with another distinctive childhood flavour, Army & Navy Sweets. Again, these are something you don't see around so much these days, except in vintage confectionery shops where they still sell sweets from jars by the quarter.