Kendal Mint Cake seems to be the Cumbrian version of German Pfefferminzbruch - a dense, minty fondant on the brink of turning into a solid slab of minty sugar (or sugar paste in a humid environment).
It's Friday, a half day at school for us, Atomic Shrimp is doing a "weird stuff in a can" , 2 of the cans are the BEST color AND I now know what Kendal mint cake and Burdock are! This is one of my best RUclips experiences ever! Thank you.💜
Huh, I just finished a few-day long binge watch of this series all the way back to Burger Toast, and a few hours later, you put out a new vid in the series -- nice. I really enjoy these vids, even the ones where the Weird Stuff In A Can isn't all too weird. Glad you're still finding and trying out weird stuff for all of us to enjoy!
I grew up with Tenzing's grandson and it was so weird reading a poem about his grandad and Hilary mounting the summit of Everest in English lessons with him 😅 we were all like "omg Jordan that's your grandad" and "is that actually what happened??"
This series makes the best comfy lunchtime viewing material. The vibes are just right. I really appreciate how much context you give for each thing in a can!
Never heard of Kendal Mint Cake before, but the chocolate-covered one sounds quite like an American candy called a York Peppermint Pattie. They have a more creamy texture than the Kendal Mint Cake, but they, are as the name suggests, formed around a minty sugar patty.
Now I am expecting at least two videos: how to forage dandelion and burdock roots (or better to say: harvest, as you are not allowed to dig out plants outside of your property) and how to make this lemonade at home! 😄 I tried dandelion and burdock once, but it was the cheap one, it tasted awful but maybe it was just the wrong brand? I would give it another chance 😉
Love Kendall's Mintcake. I take a tin with me on all my geology fieldwork expeditions. You'd be right in how you (or at least me and my co-worker do) eat it. I snap the blocks into halves again and place it up against my gums so it provides a slow trickle of sugar as it melts.
One of the best drinks from Cumbria , barrow in furness was a drink called Sass by local firm called Marsh's , it was amazing drink of pop but alas recipe died with owner i think so not passed down . you would i think loved that taste Mr Shrimp:)
I would love to see you make Dandelion and Burdock drink, expecially because I have no idea what burdock is. I really hate the flavour but my little sister loves it! I always buy her a can if I see it in a shop. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the heart-shaped tin 🩶 in the future
Hello Mr.Shrimp! Thank you for you channel and for Weird Stuff series in particular. I'm always on lookout for new things to try. And sometimes it is equal as important to know what not to try, as Kendal Cake. Also, the tin looks pretty.
Something interesting to note is Cumbria usually gets used to trial introducing products to the UK, I think sunny D was one of them. There’s a brand of crisps called XL Cheese that are only available around Cumbria because they only ever sold well here.
Poundstretcher near me has massive bottles of Soda Folk stuff, Rhubarb and Custard and Key Lime Pie flavours, quite tasty. (Completely random point to raise, I'm now aware. Yet here we are)
Kendal mint cake was sold in our local sweet shops , it was in the standard large toffee jars in a small foil tray if I remember rightly here in Lancashire.
mint anything is good in my book. That sounds tasty to me. especially chocolate covered. Probably a lot like the american York Peppermint Patty. (which is named for a town in my home state!) they're probably my favorite mint and chocolate candy, i like how soft and melty they are.
I like all of these - Kendal Mint Cake can be quite addictive once you get round how sweet it is - and I'm not keen on sweet things, but... Dandelion and Burdock was introduced to me at a young age, by my dad, who loved it. I could drink it until it came out of my ears, actually. These items do appear, on first sight, to be: 'Local cans for Local people.'
I'm Eastern European, and I love trying "weird" things. I'll definitely buy this Dandelion and Burdock drink if I see it in shops. I've only tried the Tesco version, and it was very meh 😂
My sisters and I used to have Dandelion and Burdock in the late 1940's early fifties. We pretended that we were drinking beer as it looked like brown ale. This was in Surrey.
The Kendal Mint Cace reminded me of a candy that is often sold ait fairs hereabouts. Mint fondant in drop shape, wrapped in orange cellophane, bound into tresses. Onions are traditionally dried and sold like that, and there's a fall fair in Berne called "Zibelemärit", literally Onion Fair, wherre these are sold as a specialty, but they are common also in other similar fairs in Switzerland.
I knew as soon as I saw those wholesome ingredients on the blueberry soda I knew it wouldn't taste like a "blueberry muffin". It would have to be full of weird stuff I think. Bet it's delicious regardless!
Mint cake! So that’s what it was!! I have been wondering for years. I was given some as a child and I have not seen anything like it since. When I tried to look it up all I could find was peppermint patties.
Here inVictoria BC, I can buy Dandelion and Burdock sodapop in the ethnic aisle of the supermarket, along with sticky toffee pudding and HeinzBaked Beans.
Love dandelion & burdock used to drink a lot of it when younger. Not seen any for a while though to be honest I've not been looking for it as more of a coffee drinker nowadays.
Kendal mint cake was always in my emergency rations when on my DofE many a year ago...and your right it's a block of sugar...then lucozade tablets came out
I remember in the 70s(yes Im old) people would keep a block mint cake in the bottom of their rucksack for 'just incase'..after a day in the hills it would be a sludgy mess lol
The only dandelion and burdock I can get around me in the States is Fentiman's, but I absolutely adore it. I can't get it as often as I'd like. I think there might be others available, just not near me.
@@lli747 You're right! I've purchased other Fentiman's drinks there. I have to go to a British import store for the dandelion and burdock, but I can still get the others at World Market. They might get it sometimes still. I'll have to go back and check.
Dandelion and burdock are both supposed to be good for the digestion and both have diuretic properties apparently. An ancient herbal remedy by all acounts. All very interesting! Thanks Mike.
When was at school in the 1960s we had a Temperence Bar in our northern mill town and me and my mate used to go in there and have a pint of D&B or Sarsparilla .... they used to brew it on the premisies. If anyone knows Bury it was on The Rock towards the Walmersley Road end near the Fire Station and I think it was called Elliotts
Dandelion and Burdock was all I drank for a couple of years in my early teens. I'm only 42, and from the west country. You used to be able to get it in sainsburys, not sure if you still can. If I had to describe the flavour, I would call it slightly medicated. But it was a weird flavour. It would've been the cheap commercial stuff that I drank.
Sadly they discontinued their Key Lime Pie and Jam Rolly Polly flavours before i had time to try them... but, I really like Soda Folk for the same reasons you stated, less sugary flavour and made with spingwater so a fresh taste.
When i visited Florida as a kid i fell in love with root beer and diet coke. After a while of diet coke in the UK i wasn't fond of diet drinks until pepsi max. As for root beer that i longed for in the UK Dandelion and Burdock has always been the closest. The supermarkets did a great job of the old school favourites like cream soda, D&B, ginger beer and cloudy lemonade until the sugar ban/ tax. Yes i agree with the aniseed taste and i have forgotten the root beer ingredients but they did add that into the D&D to make it more like root beer before the sugar cull. I sometimes wonder what carbonated hoisin sauce would taste like in the soda stream but i also have a weak gag reflex if it doesn't combine well, so haven't tried it! lol Re the hikers/after 8 mints, didn't they have something similar for the miners that was like a UK biscuit bread?
Kendal Mintcake is popular with Type 1 diabetics, treated with insulin injection, for when they feel that they are going hypoglycaemic, to quickly boost their blood sugar in the short term.
Many (many) years ago when camping in the Lake District I purchased a block of Kendal mint cake, it was like a piece of granite. I could neither bite or break a piece off, it was horrible stuff, as you said it was just a solid block of sugar with hardly any noticeable mint flavour, I binned it.😢
I love Dandelion and Burdock. I like all that medicinal tasting stuff, I always figured D&B is the rootbeer of the UK. Did originally contain any safrole? I always wondered, obviously not these days.
6:16 popping something sugary under your tongue is the fastest way to get it into your system, the enzymes in your saliva are particularly effective at processing glucose
Dandelion & Burdock! What's not to like with this. As a kid on holiday in south wales this was the number one drink to take to the beach, i still buy a bottle 60 years on to see if I can still remember the taste. it is weird as you say! I've never had it in a can 🙂
A reccomendation for weird stiff in a can is a beer by brewdog called rattle and rum, weird because it's a rum fortified stout. Worth trying as it's absolutely gorgeous. One of the rare occasions where I bought a beer on a whim and bought more as a result of how it supprised me
Used to always buy kendal mint cake when I had trips to lake district. Turns out when I started teaching Saling for scouts that ended up being quite a lot. D and b still one of my favourite drinks, only if it's done properly.
I find dandelion and burdock makes a great accompaniment to a (separate) glass of absinthe (or Pernod or pastis, if you can't get it). Culturally, a bit strange - Northern English working-class soft drink meets turn of the 20th century bourgeois French decadence, but the herby flavours complement each other really well. ☺
I did once find myself in Kendal on a Sunday trying - with difficulty - to buy some mint cake. It was before they liberalised the Sunday trading laws and everywhere was closed: I eventually found some in the tourist office. As for Ambleside: in WW2 the Royal College of Art was evacuated there, and my mother was a student. She was billeted the Salutation Hotel, which is still there - hopefully, they've got rid of the cockroaches by now.
Dandelion & burdock - Lowcock’s lemonade used to make that where I lived - there’s an alcoholic variety made by a company called Hooper’s! Take the fizz out of it and you get sarsaparilla - in fact, if you go to America and ask for a sarsaparilla and soda, you will get dandelion & burdock!
The mint cake reminds me of GU--a portable energy supplement used mainly for long runs or long bike events. Not very yummy, but easy to carry and does the job.
My friend in Portsmouth was drinking a dandelion and bardock soda and acted like it was the most normal thing. I figured it was a normal flavor of drink over there.
I will happily watch every episode of "slightly unusual stuff in some kind of container", as long as you stay as entertaining as you always have been
I personally felt these were sufficiently weird enough and canned enough to satisfy the expectations set by the series name.
The best description of mint cake that I ever heard was "toothpaste fudge"
It would be awesome to see you make your own dandelion and burdock drink
I second this suggestion. 🙂
Yes I was going to comment - this is a foraging challenge.
Ooh yeah that's a great idea, I fifth this idea
@@roginkyou cant dig up plants in the UK if you dont have permission from the owner of the property.
Definitely one for the list. If the opportunity arises.
Kendal Mint Cake sounds a lot like a candy we have in the US, the York Peppermint Patty.
Thats about as near as I've found, but Kendal mint cake is hard, more crunchy, as I remember.
In an alternative universe a radioactive prawn reviews stuff in a weird can.
🦐🥫
If you carried too many of these assorted goods at one time, it could prove a bit…cumbrisome.
Kendal Mint Cake seems to be the Cumbrian version of German Pfefferminzbruch - a dense, minty fondant on the brink of turning into a solid slab of minty sugar (or sugar paste in a humid environment).
I should try that! I never knew that existed.
It's more like a slab of peppermint sugar, still crystalized but cohesive, with a slightly-softer-than-crumbly texture.
That is exactly what it is :)
Has the German version made it to the top of Everest?
I honestly don't know@@rogink
As someone born and raised in Kendal, seeing my hometown's speciality being repped brings me so much joy!
Aww ❤
In Yorkshire, dandelion and burdock is sold in every fish shop and corner shop. All British army shops stock it to cater for us Yorkshire folk.
Same here in Lancashire and the rest of thebNorth west, I didn't know it was not available in the south. I thought it was everywhere.
@Alex-cw3rz It's available up to the Midlands I believe, is everywhere down here in Northampton too
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Teesside and Durham too...
@@Alex-cw3rzIt is lol
That is weird, I can't imagine dandelion and burdock without a chippy tea!
A can from the shelf on the wall in the chippy with a light coating of airborne beef dripping. Excellent.
"or enjoy as a mixer"
Slightly odd use for a temperance drink 😂
It's Friday, a half day at school for us, Atomic Shrimp is doing a "weird stuff in a can" , 2 of the cans are the BEST color AND I now know what Kendal mint cake and Burdock are!
This is one of my best RUclips experiences ever! Thank you.💜
Awww ❤
Sending you happy purple hugs.
Sainsburys everywhere should have Dandelion and Burdock
@@PaddyMacWorld Morrisons sell their own. I'd never thought of it as a northern thing, but perhaps that's why other supermarkets don't sell it!
Huh, I just finished a few-day long binge watch of this series all the way back to Burger Toast, and a few hours later, you put out a new vid in the series -- nice. I really enjoy these vids, even the ones where the Weird Stuff In A Can isn't all too weird. Glad you're still finding and trying out weird stuff for all of us to enjoy!
Aren't they just the most wonderful "discovery" videos! I love them too!!!
I can see a Make Shrimp cottage mint cake and a dandelion and burdock brew coming on. (Hopefully)
Another lovely upload .
I'd love to see you try soap making :)
The mint cake reminds me of York peppermint patties in the US, just more brittle.
That was what I came here to comment
Bur doesn't that one keep bringing you back to the top of the mountain if you eat it on the way down?
Would love to see you make your own dandelion and burdock drink 😊
Oh hey, is that Ambleside of Half Man Half Biscuit fame?
I grew up with Tenzing's grandson and it was so weird reading a poem about his grandad and Hilary mounting the summit of Everest in English lessons with him 😅 we were all like "omg Jordan that's your grandad" and "is that actually what happened??"
This series makes the best comfy lunchtime viewing material. The vibes are just right. I really appreciate how much context you give for each thing in a can!
Soda Folk do a pretty good root beer. probably the best I've found in the UK aside from the increasingly hard to find imports.
The grape flavoured Soda Folk is *excellent* too. Well worth buying if you see if in Lidl.
Never heard of Kendal Mint Cake before, but the chocolate-covered one sounds quite like an American candy called a York Peppermint Pattie. They have a more creamy texture than the Kendal Mint Cake, but they, are as the name suggests, formed around a minty sugar patty.
They're definitely similar, although mint cake is a lot mintier - think Life Savers compared to Altoids.
Having lived in Kendal when I moved to Cumbria in 2000 from Liverpool it took a long while to get used to Mint Cake.
Now I am expecting at least two videos: how to forage dandelion and burdock roots (or better to say: harvest, as you are not allowed to dig out plants outside of your property) and how to make this lemonade at home! 😄
I tried dandelion and burdock once, but it was the cheap one, it tasted awful but maybe it was just the wrong brand? I would give it another chance 😉
Would love to see you in Japan for 2 weeks, you could easily make 100 more episodes of weird stuff in a can
Weird stuff from a vending machine?
Quite happy to watch you review stuff in a can - weird or otherwise. That pocked tin is beautiful for a camping tack container
I have had Kendal mint cake before as a Scout over 40yrs ago , and Dandelion & Burdock has also been around for years
Love Kendall's Mintcake. I take a tin with me on all my geology fieldwork expeditions. You'd be right in how you (or at least me and my co-worker do) eat it. I snap the blocks into halves again and place it up against my gums so it provides a slow trickle of sugar as it melts.
4can Special
Not to be confused with a 4chan special
A two toucan special
Two Toucan Special
You're 4can kidding me?!
@@GIBBO4182or a fortran special
One of the best drinks from Cumbria , barrow in furness was a drink called Sass by local firm called Marsh's , it was amazing drink of pop but alas recipe died with owner i think so not passed down . you would i think loved that taste Mr Shrimp:)
I would love to see you make Dandelion and Burdock drink, expecially because I have no idea what burdock is. I really hate the flavour but my little sister loves it! I always buy her a can if I see it in a shop.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with the heart-shaped tin 🩶 in the future
Hello Mr.Shrimp! Thank you for you channel and for Weird Stuff series in particular. I'm always on lookout for new things to try. And sometimes it is equal as important to know what not to try, as Kendal Cake. Also, the tin looks pretty.
Something interesting to note is Cumbria usually gets used to trial introducing products to the UK, I think sunny D was one of them. There’s a brand of crisps called XL Cheese that are only available around Cumbria because they only ever sold well here.
Super weird that anyone would wish to combine these. For some reason, that brings Steve1989 to mind. Nice hiss.
Poundstretcher near me has massive bottles of Soda Folk stuff, Rhubarb and Custard and Key Lime Pie flavours, quite tasty.
(Completely random point to raise, I'm now aware. Yet here we are)
Earliest Ive ever been to a video I think, and posted right as I was drinking my morning coffee. Good stuff
Kendal mint cake was sold in our local sweet shops , it was in the standard large toffee jars in a small foil tray if I remember rightly here in Lancashire.
mint anything is good in my book. That sounds tasty to me. especially chocolate covered. Probably a lot like the american York Peppermint Patty. (which is named for a town in my home state!) they're probably my favorite mint and chocolate candy, i like how soft and melty they are.
The mint cake is more hard and crumbly in texture compared to the peppermint patty
I like all of these - Kendal Mint Cake can be quite addictive once you get round how sweet it is - and I'm not keen on sweet things, but...
Dandelion and Burdock was introduced to me at a young age, by my dad, who loved it. I could drink it until it came out of my ears, actually.
These items do appear, on first sight, to be:
'Local cans for Local people.'
I'm Eastern European, and I love trying "weird" things. I'll definitely buy this Dandelion and Burdock drink if I see it in shops. I've only tried the Tesco version, and it was very meh 😂
My sisters and I used to have Dandelion and Burdock in the late 1940's early fifties. We pretended that we were drinking beer as it looked like brown ale. This was in Surrey.
Hearing Dandelion and Burdock reminds me of the redwall books i used to read as kid.
I used to holiday in the Lake District as a child. Not a holiday, without the Kendel Mint Cake.
Love dandelion and burdock fab to see this shown. Kendall mint cake nice in small amounts not too much in one go
I remember my mum talking about having dandelion and burdock when she was a kid. Cool to see.
The Kendal Mint Cace reminded me of a candy that is often sold ait fairs hereabouts. Mint fondant in drop shape, wrapped in orange cellophane, bound into tresses. Onions are traditionally dried and sold like that, and there's a fall fair in Berne called "Zibelemärit", literally Onion Fair, wherre these are sold as a specialty, but they are common also in other similar fairs in Switzerland.
For my fondant mint surrounded by chocolate fix I love a Fry's Chocolate Cream. Like a chunky After Eight.
I knew as soon as I saw those wholesome ingredients on the blueberry soda I knew it wouldn't taste like a "blueberry muffin". It would have to be full of weird stuff I think. Bet it's delicious regardless!
Mint cake! So that’s what it was!! I have been wondering for years. I was given some as a child and I have not seen anything like it since. When I tried to look it up all I could find was peppermint patties.
Spent time as a child In Threlkeld. I love Kendal mint cake. Dad used to bring it home every time he visited England after emigrating to Canada.
My house in Kendal was just around the corner from the Kendal Mint Cake factory happy days
OH MAN I FUCKING LOVE "barrs" dandelion and burdock soda, IMO i think it tastes VERY analogous to "root beer".
Here inVictoria BC, I can buy Dandelion and Burdock sodapop in the ethnic aisle of the supermarket, along with sticky toffee pudding and HeinzBaked Beans.
I love this series Mr Shrimp
Weirdly wonderful. Thanks.
Dandelion and burdock original recipe. Yum. I just love the gel and earthy taste
I can't remember the last time I had Dandelion and Burdock, I loved this as a child. I'm really going to look out for it now
There used to be a brand of it available in Canada, but I haven't seen it in thirty years.
Love dandelion & burdock used to drink a lot of it when younger. Not seen any for a while though to be honest I've not been looking for it as more of a coffee drinker nowadays.
The major supermarkets sell dandelion and burdock-albeit sugar free.
I love Dandelion and Burdock; Asda in the UK do a particularly nice one, and it's cheap too
Kendal mint cake was always in my emergency rations when on my DofE many a year ago...and your right it's a block of sugar...then lucozade tablets came out
I remember in the 70s(yes Im old) people would keep a block mint cake in the bottom of their rucksack for 'just incase'..after a day in the hills it would be a sludgy mess lol
The only dandelion and burdock I can get around me in the States is Fentiman's, but I absolutely adore it. I can't get it as often as I'd like. I think there might be others available, just not near me.
World Market used to carry it, but I haven’t seen it anywhere else.
@@lli747 You're right! I've purchased other Fentiman's drinks there. I have to go to a British import store for the dandelion and burdock, but I can still get the others at World Market. They might get it sometimes still. I'll have to go back and check.
Today I learned something new - I remember eating Kendall mint cakes as a kid but never knew what they were called
Dandelion and burdock are both supposed to be good for the digestion and both have diuretic properties apparently. An ancient herbal remedy by all acounts. All very interesting! Thanks Mike.
Stuff in a weird can would be a great series.
When was at school in the 1960s we had a Temperence Bar in our northern mill town and me and my mate used to go in there and have a pint of D&B or Sarsparilla .... they used to brew it on the premisies. If anyone knows Bury it was on The Rock towards the Walmersley Road end near the Fire Station and I think it was called Elliotts
where I live we have wild Maine blueberry rootbeer and it's pretty good just drank one yesterday
I love Kendal mint cake. I have several bars in my emergency stash of food.
Fish and Chips washed down with Dandelion & Burdock is a Northern staple.
I got a dandelion burdock drink from a local health shop years ago because I'd never seen it. I love that stuff.
I started to Cumbria myself when I saw this upload
I miss dandelion & burdock! Maybe I should come back to england sometime in the future to taste it again! 😊
Likewise. Atomic Shrimp does a great job reminding me of the tastes of home.
Absolutely loved dandelion and burdock when I was a kid, not had it for years now 😢
Dandelion and Burdock my childhood fav, that and corona yellow lemonade ( think it was an isle of man special)
Those Kendal mint cakes remind me of York Peppermint patties. I wonder how similar they are.
Thankyou for sharing.
Dandelion and Burdock was all I drank for a couple of years in my early teens. I'm only 42, and from the west country. You used to be able to get it in sainsburys, not sure if you still can. If I had to describe the flavour, I would call it slightly medicated. But it was a weird flavour. It would've been the cheap commercial stuff that I drank.
Sadly they discontinued their Key Lime Pie and Jam Rolly Polly flavours before i had time to try them... but, I really like Soda Folk for the same reasons you stated, less sugary flavour and made with spingwater so a fresh taste.
When i visited Florida as a kid i fell in love with root beer and diet coke.
After a while of diet coke in the UK i wasn't fond of diet drinks until pepsi max.
As for root beer that i longed for in the UK Dandelion and Burdock has always been the closest. The supermarkets did a great job of the old school favourites like cream soda, D&B, ginger beer and cloudy lemonade until the sugar ban/ tax.
Yes i agree with the aniseed taste and i have forgotten the root beer ingredients but they did add that into the D&D to make it more like root beer before the sugar cull.
I sometimes wonder what carbonated hoisin sauce would taste like in the soda stream but i also have a weak gag reflex if it doesn't combine well, so haven't tried it! lol
Re the hikers/after 8 mints, didn't they have something similar for the miners that was like a UK biscuit bread?
Kendal Mintcake is popular with Type 1 diabetics, treated with insulin injection, for when they feel that they are going hypoglycaemic, to quickly boost their blood sugar in the short term.
Many (many) years ago when camping in the Lake District I purchased a block of Kendal mint cake, it was like a piece of granite. I could neither bite or break a piece off, it was horrible stuff, as you said it was just a solid block of sugar with hardly any noticeable mint flavour, I binned it.😢
I love Dandelion and Burdock. I like all that medicinal tasting stuff, I always figured D&B is the rootbeer of the UK. Did originally contain any safrole? I always wondered, obviously not these days.
Enjoyed this, thank you. Now, I’m off to find therapy for learning chocolate is not a dedicated survival food.
6:16 popping something sugary under your tongue is the fastest way to get it into your system, the enzymes in your saliva are particularly effective at processing glucose
The dandelion and burdock sounds wonderful. If that could be brewed up into an ale, i'd be first in line.
Not what I expected to see today as a born and bred Cumbrian, but t'is cool to see indeed!
Are you a marra?
I've tried D&B on my last visit to the UK and I loved it, it's absolutely delicious! I would drink it everyday if I could find it where I live 😅
I like your box cutter! Looks solid.
Dandelion & Burdock! What's not to like with this.
As a kid on holiday in south wales this was the number one drink to take to the beach, i still buy a bottle 60 years on to see if I can still remember the taste. it is weird as you say! I've never had it in a can 🙂
Hooray more weird stuff in a can, i would personally love to see if theres maybe a can of fries or chips you can get.
A reccomendation for weird stiff in a can is a beer by brewdog called rattle and rum, weird because it's a rum fortified stout. Worth trying as it's absolutely gorgeous. One of the rare occasions where I bought a beer on a whim and bought more as a result of how it supprised me
Used to always buy kendal mint cake when I had trips to lake district. Turns out when I started teaching Saling for scouts that ended up being quite a lot.
D and b still one of my favourite drinks, only if it's done properly.
I find dandelion and burdock makes a great accompaniment to a (separate) glass of absinthe (or Pernod or pastis, if you can't get it). Culturally, a bit strange - Northern English working-class soft drink meets turn of the 20th century bourgeois French decadence, but the herby flavours complement each other really well. ☺
I did once find myself in Kendal on a Sunday trying - with difficulty - to buy some mint cake. It was before they liberalised the Sunday trading laws and everywhere was closed: I eventually found some in the tourist office.
As for Ambleside: in WW2 the Royal College of Art was evacuated there, and my mother was a student. She was billeted the Salutation Hotel, which is still there - hopefully, they've got rid of the cockroaches by now.
Dandelion & burdock - Lowcock’s lemonade used to make that where I lived - there’s an alcoholic variety made by a company called Hooper’s!
Take the fizz out of it and you get sarsaparilla - in fact, if you go to America and ask for a sarsaparilla and soda, you will get dandelion & burdock!
I've had Fentimans Dandelion & Burdock beverage and it's delicious
everybod< rhibj woodrof is crazy but un gernan< ita normal
The mint cake reminds me of GU--a portable energy supplement used mainly for long runs or long bike events. Not very yummy, but easy to carry and does the job.
My friend in Portsmouth was drinking a dandelion and bardock soda and acted like it was the most normal thing. I figured it was a normal flavor of drink over there.
Lord Monty , Lord Snot , Miss Money-Sterling, Sir Kendal Mintcake