The best premium soft drinks in the UK.
Published 10 July 2026
A premium soft drink is one you would happily serve in a wine glass: real ingredients, considered flavour, and a format that feels like an occasion rather than an afterthought. The UK does this well, from craft sodas to botanical brews to fruit pressés. Here are the ones worth knowing, what each one is actually about, and how to choose.
What makes a soft drink premium?
Premium is more than a nice label. The good ones tend to share three things:
- Real ingredients: sourced botanicals, real fruit or properly brewed bases rather than syrup and flavourings.
- Considered flavour: balanced and often drier, made to be sipped slowly rather than gulped.
- Honest sweetness: a premium drink does not have to be sugary. The best are clear about their sugar and let the ingredients carry the flavour.
The best premium soft drinks to know.
Fever-Tree
The brand that made premium mixers mainstream. Fever-Tree's tonics, ginger ales and sodas are built on sourced botanicals and natural quinine and ginger, with light and low-calorie options across the range. Most people meet it next to a gin, but the sodas and lemonades are worth drinking on their own, over ice, as a genuinely grown-up soft drink.
Franklin & Sons
A heritage British soft drink maker, revived, with an unusually broad range of sodas, tonics and flavoured lemonades. Think rhubarb with hibiscus, or Sicilian lemon with elderflower. The flavour pairings are more adventurous than most, the bottles and cans look the part, and it is increasingly easy to find in supermarkets and delis.
Fentimans
Botanically brewed the slow way, with some lines fermented over a day or more. Fentimans makes curiosity cola, rose lemonade, ginger beer and dandelion and burdock with real depth of flavour. It is the premium soft drink for people who want character and a bit of history rather than a clean, minimal profile.
Belvoir Farm
A Leicestershire farm that presses fruit and flowers into cordials and sparkling pressés. The elderflower is the classic, made from hand-picked blossom, and the ginger beer and raspberry are excellent. These sit on the sweeter, fruitier side of premium, but the ingredients are real and the elderflower in particular is hard to beat.
Square Root
Small-batch London sodas made with real fruit and a lot of care. Seasonal flavours, proper carbonation and a cult following among people who take soda seriously. Availability is limited and it is not cheap, but for a genuinely craft soda it is one of the best in the country.
Double Dutch
Founded by twin sisters, Double Dutch makes premium mixers and sodas designed to be interesting in their own right, like cucumber and watermelon or pomegranate and basil. Cleaner and less sweet than most, they bridge the gap between a mixer and a soft drink you would happily sip on its own.
How to choose the one for you.
Match the drink to the moment. For something to sip on its own, a botanical brew like Fentimans or a craft soda like Square Root rewards slow drinking. For the table or a dinner, Fever-Tree and Franklin & Sons look and taste the part. For a fruitier, more classic pour, Belvoir Farm is the one. Then decide how much sweetness you want and pick from there.
The takeaway.
Premium soft drinks in the UK cover craft sodas, botanical brews, pressés and grown-up mixers. The common thread among the best is real ingredients and considered, often drier flavour. If you like the idea of a premium drink built on real coconut water and botanicals with zero sugar, keep an eye on EVER, launching soon.