Cordial

Okay, I think I should stop complaining about the weather because it's getting even worse! Today we had a bit of hail around 5:00 P.M., but nothing like what parts of south London got. In spite of the decidedly un-summery weather, I have been enjoying summery drinks of late, in the form of cordial:

Cordial isn't popular in Vancouver; I can't remember mixing any cordial in Canada, or even having it offered to me, and I still can't make the word sound like it belongs anywhere but in a period film, but London supermarkets are full of an amazing array of cordial, or squash, as it's sometimes known. (Apparently, the technical difference between the two is that cordial has to contain more fruit than squash, but I'm still not exactly clear on that distinction.) In any case, I've found cordial to be quite handy, especially considering our very limited fridge space, since it's a concentrated fruit base to which you add a lot of still or sparkling water to make a tasty drink. I actually started buying cordial after I gave up on finding soft drinks that weren't sweetened with artificial sugars. I think I've mentioned this before, but Aspartame and many other artificial sweeteners are often found in beverages and foods here without being labelled as "diet" foodstuffs. In Canada, if something doesn't say "lite" or "diet" or something to that effect, you know you're safe from artificial sugars, but the UK must have different packaging laws, because these ingredients show up in "regular" food and drink all the time. So not only does cordial come in lovely flavours and save fridge space, it's also free of artificial sugar and usually only has four or five ingredients, all with non-scary names.