Symington's Dandelion has now become "lactose free"

NEW IMPROVED FORMULA
We now have stocks of lactose free which is much closer in colour and aroma to the original lactose product. The product is still lactose free but the colour of the granules is similiar to the original and the cup of drink also looks very similiar. The granules also have a much less sweet aroma and and have more of the original "Dandelion aroma". We would like our long term drinkers of Symington's Dandelion to taste test this product for us so we can continue to improve and advise the UK manufacturer on what further changes may be necessary. If you would like to taste test this new version please email us your mailing address to info@choate.com.au and we will mail you a sample to try.
This new improved formula will become available in retail stores over the next 2 to 3 months as the old stock is sold.
The new improved formula product is darker in colour like the original version

The new improved formula is identified on the 250 grm can as follows: it has no yellow label under overcap, and the words "NEW IMPROVED FORMULA" on the bottom of can

Unfortunately the internet has not reached the stage where I can offer a taste test yet, so to try this you can either send us an email to info@choate.com.au with your snail mail address and we will send you a sample to try or look for the product to become available in the retail stores, as we have begun to supply the product to the distributors in each state with this new version. the 100grm and 500 grm will have the same coding on the bottom of the cans

WHY THE CHANGE TO LACTOSE FREE
Symington's Dandelion is a very old product which has been sold in the Australian market since 1963. It was first manufactured in Scotland by Thos Symington well before this date. The product has only ever contained the soluble extract of roasted dandelion root and lactose. Lactose was been used for many years as a carrier for herbal extracts to make it easy to make into a granule and allow the user to obtain the correct amount of dandelion extract required for a cup of Symington's Dandelion - ie you would only need a small part of a teaspoon which would be too difficult to accurately measure in its pure form rather like a tablet of Vitamin C which actually only contains a small amount of pure Vitamin C and a carrier to form the tablet.
Suitable Lactose (Food quality  & GMO free)  has in recent times become  too expensive to make the product viable requiring a large increase to the retail price of Symington's Dandelion making it unaffordable by many of our consumers. The Australian price of Lactose has increased from $600 per tonne to $3500 per ton durng 2006 and has remained high which is good news for the manufacturers but bad news for the users of Lactose. ( see article on ABC Rural Lactose Price Skyrockets)

Also the incidence of Lactose intolerance has increased over recent years and many people are unable to eat or drink Lactose and many manufacturers have removed Lactose from their products.see lactose intolerance information       see lactose intolerance in WIKI

WHAT HAS CHANGED
The Lactose has been replaced by Dextrose and glucose - the sugars found in common carbohydrates and in common sugar( sucrose) which many people add to sweeten Symington's dandelion for taste. All vegetables and fruits containing sugar including dandelion root naturally contain glucose already. Lactose is a sugar sourced from milk so the product is not suitable for Lactose intolerant or Vegans.
WHAT HAS NOT CHANGED
The quantity of  soluble roasted Dandelion root in the granules of Symington's Dandelion has not changed. Every cup of Lactose free Symington' Dandelion contains the same amount of soluble Roasted root. Therefore the beneficial effects gained from drinking Symington's dandelion are unchanged.
The method of processing by hot water extracted Dandelion root and the important ingredient Roasted Dandelion root extract used to produce Symington's Dandelion Instant herbal tea has not been changed.

TASTE AND AROMA

We have noted the following with some of our customers that the granules of the new LACTOSE FREE are lighter in colour than the LACTOSE product. Also the drink made with 1 teaspoon full of old LACTOSE Symington's Dandelion is darker in colour than the drink made with 1 teaspoonful new Lactose Free Dandelion. However the quantity of Soluble roasted dandelion root in new granules is NOT changed nor is the total sugar content. We have always recommended that customers use 1 teaspoon of granules per 220ml cup Symingon's Dandelion. If you add more Lactose free granules than this  you will get a darker drink similiar to the previous version BUT the drink will be much sweeter because Dextrose has a much sweeter taste than Lactose and your cup will be of much greater strength in Dandelion root than recommended. If you are not a sweet tooth DONT add more than 1 teaspoonful of granules. If you normally add sugar DONT add any or at least less than normal.
However the NEW IMPROVED FORMULA is darker in colour and this should be less of a problem.

Taste and smell are very subjective factors and among any group of people different people will taste and smell different things in any product.
The smell of the product is sweeter in the dry form but this is not the same when dissolved in water.

Some customers say it is slightly sweeter, some more spicy, some prefer it and some may not like it as much.
As the beneficial effects are unchanged it may require drinkers to slightly change their way of drinking Symington's Dandelion

For those who don't like sweetness add a few drops of Lemon or Lime juice
Those who add extra sugar to the old lactose product - add less sugar
For those use more than the recommended 1 teaspoon full of granules- use less of the new granules.

TO ALL CUSTOMERS
We hope all our valued customers are able to understand the reasons we had to make this change to Symington's Dandelion without which most of our customers would not have been able to afford this great product. We realise there is some change to the taste of the product but it was needed to ensure Symington's remained available.
We need to remember that Dandelion products are drunk for their beneficial effects See Dandelion information, and Symington's Dandelion has high strength, pure root and ease of preparation compared to other Dandelion alternative products. Pure roasted root is time consuming to prepare (must be percolated for a number of minutes to extract all the valuable soluble ingredients) and tea bags are wasteful as they are not pure(contain Chicory) and warm water in a cup does not extract all thevaluable solubles.

The following table gives some comparisons with other beverages to demonstrate the low sugar content dandelion still maintains

*The small variations in protein carbohydrate and sugar are batch to batch variations and differences in analysis.

**Results based on actual analysis conducted on a sample of new Lactose free by independent UK laboratory.