Kinnie
Type | Soft drink |
---|---|
Manufacturer | Simonds Farsons Cisk |
Country of origin | Malta |
Introduced | 1952 |
Color | Amber |
Variants |
Kinnie Zest Diet Kinnie |
Related products |
Krest Chinotto Irn Bru Coca Cola |
Kinnie (Maltese pronunciation: [kinːiː]) is a soft drink from Malta. It was first developed in 1952 by Simonds Farsons Cisk.
Kinnie is amber in colour, has a bittersweet flavour, and is drunk straight or mixed with alcohol to create a long drink.
History
Kinnie was first produced in 1952 as an alternative to the cola drinks that proliferated in post-war Europe.[1]
Kinnie's recipe is kept secret. However the official website provides further information about its ingredients, suggesting that Kinnie owes its bittersweet taste to a blend of Mediterranean chinotto bitter oranges, combined with an infusion of a dozen different aromatic herbs and spices such as anise, ginseng, vanilla, rhubarb and liquorice.
As the health awareness increased over recent decades, a Diet version for Kinnie appeared in 1984. In 2007, a new low calorie version of Kinnie called Kinnie Zest was made available. This has a slightly darker colour and a stronger orange flavour, and is advertised as only having one calorie per bottle. The latest Kinnie variant is Kinnie Vita which is naturally sweetened using a blend of sugar and stevia leaf extract.
Sales locations
Kinnie is exported to the UK, Italy, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands,[2] Libya, and Canada.
In recent years, Simonds Farsons Cisk also started to franchise Kinnie production overseas. As a result, Kinnie is now produced under licence in Australia.
In March 2009, it was announced that Farsons were going to start exporting Kinnie into Russia.[3] In the summer of 2010, Farsons and Kinnie UK Limited soft-launched Kinnie and its two variants in London's West End, reaching almost 100 trial outlets by September 2010.[4]
See also
References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kinnie. |
- ↑ "Simonds Farsons Cisk". Farsons.com. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
- ↑ "Kinnie Nederland". Kinnie-drinks.nl. Retrieved 2013-08-24.
- ↑ Farsons to export Kinnie to Russia Times of Malta, 12 March 2009.
- ↑ Kinnie goes on sale in London Times of Malta, 17 September 2010.