Okay, have been to a few supermarkets and haven't been able to find any orange squash or diluting blackcurrent, etc. They all seem to be already watered down. Are the concentrates available here?

Also, for anyone about to move here and buying food with CDN dollars NOT converted UK money (where's the pound symbol on my Canadian keyboard??), it is more expensive than I thought. Will be able to work it out better when OH's first wage comes in - that way we'll see what percentage we spend

I think UK food prices are pretty cheap as all the supermarkets seemed to be in price wars. Read a report recently that people in the UK used to spend 25% of their budget on food shopping but now only spend 12%. I could easily buy a weeks shopping for 4 back in the UK for around 100 GBP plus a little extra for fresh fruit and veg throughout the week. I definately think my food budget will go up.

Do a search for cordial, or ribena...this has been asked a lot. The short answer is no, they don't sell squash as you know it here (Ribena is available in some stores at $5+ for a small glass bottle), however you can buy frozen concentrates that make up a pitcher of drinks, which is similar.

Something to note though...blackcurrant is not a common flavour in Canada. When I moved from Canada to England aged 10, I'd never even heard of blackcurrant. Turns out I hate the stuff, so I'm quite glad to get back to Canada and away from that horrible, bitter fruit!

I have found polish cordials in a local swiss delicatessen. The closest we have got to squash So you need to keep looking and in the more unusual places. I have seen french 'sirop de....' in various bakeries and delis which is similar to squash.

I have to agree that food generally takes a bigger proportion of a Canadian wages, than in the UK.

There's no price war in our remote neck of the woods. (I suspect a cartel where the 3 supermarkets sit down and decide what they'll charge for things!).

The distance food is transported is a factor, but it doesn't seem much cheaper when we go down to Vancouver.

Fruit juice concentrate is sold in frozen 'tubes' as are other juice-like drinks like Five Alive (which are full of sugar and additives as, from my memory, most squashes are). Frozen fruit juice and juice-like drink concentrate look like this:



You mix it up in a pitcher and keep that in your fridge.

You can also try the mixer section (look/ask for cordials) or the ethnic foods section at the grocery store.

There are also plenty of powdered drinks.... that are really best avoided: Crystal Lite, Kool Aid, Tang etc... although Kool Aid is great for dying fabric - great colours and permanent, unfading dye job - who would actually consume this stuff though is beyond me.


Adding:
Holy crap! That pic is huuuge!
Sorry!

Yeah it is, but my question is, did you walk into a supermarket and take it?

No, I'm still in my PJs. It's just a link to an image I googled.

I bought a bottle of Granthams lemon SQUASH in RCSS just before Xmas. I also got a small bottle of Ribena as a treat for the kids. It is not cheap here, and tends to be found with things like Grenadine and Pina Colada mix etc on the (larger supermarket) shelves. Roses lime cordial also available.

So if you need a fix, you can get it, but it's not as abundant or cheap as in the UK.

Plenty of flavoured mineral waters about though which are probably more healthy.

On prices, I pay here in CAD roughly what I paid in euro in Ireland, so it's cheaper for me. However, from what I know of UK food prices, I would think you will find some Canadian stuff more expensive (cheese for a start!) However, everything comes in bigger packs, so maybe it's not really more expenseive in thge long run...

SQ

Hi,

If you can get the OH to divert to Bedford on his way home Pete's Frootique sell Robinsons Orange and Barley Water etc. Expect to pay $5 or $6 a bottle. We are paying approx 50% per week than we were in the UK for the grocery shopping. Get a huge chest freezer and Costco membership!

SAW 04

Psst! There's a Pete's in Halifax too on Dresden Row, I think, with a large selection of imports as well. Superstore also has Ribena and (thank God) mushy peas.

Firstly - the £ is done by pressing the Alt key and keying in 156 at the same time gives you the £. Can't claim this as my own discovery - someone else on here mentioned it some time ago....was it you Iaink?
Secondly - some food prices are more expensive, but over all I find grocery shopping cheaper. I do miss the bogofs and 3fers though - I've never seen that here.
Thirdly - I work our how many hours of work it takes to cover the cost of whatever, rather than convert $ to £. Okay, so perhaps not for grocery shopping - but for big items it seems to work well. We've been here over two years and my OH still tries to do the conversion thing - you just do, then eventually you don't think about it

Oh - lastly - I've only ever seen Ribena and Rose's Lime Juice....

Good luck with everything

Thanks everyone for your help. I should really just get No 2 son to either drink fresh juice or water like the rest of us He can hold back on the beer for 9 years though

HWP - thought you had been prowling the supermarket with a camera too . Thanks for the pics, at least I know what to look for.

SAW - we are Costco members and will be hot-footing it down there when we get our own place. We are in a rental apartment which only has a small fridge with miniscule freeze box
If OH has time I'll get pop in past Pete's Frootique for some goodies.

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Try the sweden shop at Ikea stores. Black currant squash is common in Sweden. I can get it at Ikea in UK so you should be able to get it in Canada too.

You can also get lingonberry squash and elderberry squash in Ikea. All concentrates.

I seem to remember buying some powder mixes that you mixed with water, similar to ice tea mixes. Mind you, that was 1983.

Strangely, I find Canadian food stores cheaper than UK stores.

YYZlover

Yes you can buy squash. Granthams do an orange and a lemon squah both available at Safeway appro $4-$5 depending on whether it is on special. It is not where the other drinks are but where the mixers are (you can also get pina colada flavour!!!!) Ribena is cheapest at Canadian superstore and you can get lime cordial in most places. Hope this helps!!!

Sadly no such thing as Safeway in NS!