Belvoir Fruit Farms Cordial Raspberry & Rose

Man, cordials are just not my thing. I understand them, and in theory I like that I could make either still or carbonated versions of the beverage, but for the life of me I just can't get it right. You could give me a hundred attempts to recreate the companies “real” version and I would never be able to get duplicate it to my liking. Does everyone have this problem? Am I cursed in the drink mix world? Perhaps I'm just too damn picky. Whatever the reasons I tend to stay away from them.

I bet that if I purchased a ready to drink version of this beverage I would certainly love it. Making it myself I still enjoyed it, but it left something to be desired. The rose flavoring isn't very floral, which is a good thing. You still get a rose flavor out of it, but the sugar covers it up a bit so it's not screaming in your face. The raspberry on the other hand is nice and strong. This is composed of 55% raspberry juice (30% pressed, 25% from concentrate). Anything with that much raspberry is bound to be great. Unfortunately, the opposite of the rose happens with it and the added sugar makes it a tad too sweet at the recommended proportions. I tried watering it down a bit more, which fixed the sweetness problem, but weakened the flavor of the rose to a level that it might as well not have been there at all.

I apparently need more than a little suggested direction. I need the finished product plopped down right in front of me. Hell, I've never even been able to make Kool Aid correctly.