Fentimans

Thomas Fentiman, of Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire, acquired a recipe for botanically brewed ginger beer in 1905 when a colleague in business turned to Fentiman to take out a loan. The loan was never repaid, so Thomas became the owner of the recipe. The company became a door-to-door ginger beer sales company that used a horse-drawn cart for transportation. His ginger beer was stored in handmade stone glasses known as "gray chickens", all of which are stamped with the Fentimans mascot, which is based on Thomas' German Shepherd Dog "Fearless", which won the Crufts obedience class twice in 1933 and 1934. The botanically brewed ginger beer quickly became popular and business grew, with several brewing and manufacturing facilities opening in the north of England. The company went through difficult times when supermarkets entered the soft drinks market. As a result, sales of the Gray Hens (the mugs in which ginger beer was sold) plummeted and the company was closed in the mid-1960s. In 1988, Thomas Fentiman's great-grandson founded the company with the mission to produce drinks in an original way using the traditional ginger beer recipe and 100% natural ingredients. From then on, Fentimans enjoyed a wave of popularity as old style products and vintage goods became more popular. Fentimans has been brewing botanical lemonades with ingredients such as roots, bark and flowers since 1905. With the exception of the addition of new flavors, Fentimans still make their lemonades as they did around the turn of the century, and some production processes were updated, for example pasteurization was introduced to extend the shelf life of the beverages. This in turn leads to the loss of some carbon dioxide, so the addition of mild carbonation has been introduced.