Ribena - fruit juice soft drinks.

When drinking a glass of Ribena squash, have you ever wondered who grows the British blackcurrants that go into your bottle?

Well, we want to let you know a little more about the friendly growers who help make Ribena drinks so juicy.

The farms are run by a handful of British growers who are really passionate about blackcurrants. We’ve been working with many of the growers’ families for generations and much of their expertise has been passed down to them from their parents and grandparents – it really is a family business.

New blackcurrant bushes are planted each year, but it takes about three years for the bushes to start growing berries and up to eight years before the blackcurrant bushes are at their peak for harvesting – so a lot of care and patience is needed.

And it doesn’t take long for the blackcurrants to be made into juice – most of them are squashed within 24 hours of picking;  that’s pretty fast work!

When drinking a glass of Ribena squash, have you ever wondered who grows the British blackcurrants that go into your bottle?

Well, we want to let you know a little more about the friendly growers who help make Ribena drinks so juicy.

The farms are run by a handful of British growers who are really passionate about blackcurrants. We’ve been working with many of the growers’ families for generations and much of their expertise has been passed down to them from their parents and grandparents – it really is a family business.

New blackcurrant bushes are planted each year, but it takes about three years for the bushes to start growing berries and up to eight years before the blackcurrant bushes are at their peak for harvesting – so a lot of care and patience is needed.

And it doesn’t take long for the blackcurrants to be made into juice – most of them are squashed within 24 hours of picking;  that’s pretty fast work!

With some tasty blackcurrants, our lucky families helped us make some delicious smoothies when they visited the Ribena Farms.

Watch the final part of the Tales from Ribena Farm, A Kitchen Tale, below.

Growing the tasty blackcurrants that make up Ribena can be a tricky task. Our competition winners searched for buried treasure in the blackcurrant fields and learnt a little about how we grow the blackcurrants.

Enjoy the third part of the Tales from Ribena Farm, The Berry’s Tale.

Growing the tasty blackcurrants that make up Ribena can be a tricky task. Our competition winners searched for buried treasure in the blackcurrant fields and learnt a little about how we grow the blackcurrants.

Enjoy the third part of the Tales from Ribena Farm, The Berry’s Tale.

We had a great time in the sun with the twelve lucky families who came to visit our British blackcurrant farms to find out what goes on there.

They got involved with lots of fun actvities, including treasure hunts, smoothie making and bird box making and are now stars of our Tales from Ribena Farm videos!

You can see the first video, The Farmer’s Tale, below.

We had a great time in the sun with the twelve lucky families who came to visit our British blackcurrant farms to find out what goes on there.

They got involved with lots of fun actvities, including treasure hunts, smoothie making and bird box making and are now stars of our Tales from Ribena Farm videos!

You can see the first video, The Farmer’s Tale, below.

Blackcurrants from specially selected species are grown by our loyal team, a handful of British growers, to go into Ribena squash. We’ve been working with some of our growers for over three generations and 60 years to maintain the high quality of our blackcurrant crops.

Only the best varieties make it

Blackcurrants have been grown in the UK for over 500 years and there are now around 150 different species of this little fruit across the world. However, we only use around ten varieties to make Ribena.

And, because these delicious varieties are totally unique to Ribena, you won’t find a taste quite like it anywhere else.

Protecting our favourite fruits

We want to make sure our little blackcurrants grow into strong, juicy berries fit for Ribena squash, so we look after them carefully.

In order to ensure our crops grow into healthy berries, we plant the cuttings between October and March. We then spray the buds with water from mid March onwards, to form an icy blanket which actually guards the buds from frost by keeping them protected on the inside.

We don’t try to eliminate all pests from the crop, as low levels of pests can attract natural predators that help to keep the pest population under control. It’s a fine balancing act that our growers are skilled at.

We also give our berries plenty to drink, providing them with lots of water in the critical stages of early development to produce delicious, plump blackcurrants ready to be made into Ribena squash.

We hope you enjoy the results!