"Made for people really under the weather!" Quote from a Fisherman's Friend advert

Summary

Fisherman's Friend are lozenges which are sold in pharmacies worldwide. They are best known for their their strong flavour which you either love or hate.

History

In 1865, Fleetwood in Lancashire was the centre of the UK's fishing industry. Aware of the problems local fishermen had due to bad weather, a local young pharmacist, James Lofthouse invented a very strong liquid which helped their medical conditions.

News travelled fast about the new liquid which was made into lozenges, and they began selling all over the UK. In 1972 Fisherman's Friend became an international brand which now sell in 115 countries worldwide with the family owned company receiving the Queen's Award to Industry for Export Achievement on three occassions.

Fisherman's Friend are available in 8 flavours.

  • Original Strong is manufacted from the original formula invented by James Lofthouse with no artficial colours or flavours. These are sold in a strong white paper sachet with crimped edges. On the front of the packet is a black, white and red sketch of a fishing boat.
  • Aniseed Fisherman's Friend were created in 1976. These have slightly less flavour than the original formula, but are as effective without making your tastebuds explode. These are packaged in an orange sachet showing the same design as the original strong flavour.
  • Mint were introduced as after Fisherman's friend were made in aniseed flavour, customers started to demand a peppermint flavour alternative. In 1983 the super strong mint lozenge was released. Unlike the second flavour, this tablet was made even stronger than the original. These lozenges are sold in a packet of the same design as the original tablets, but in a mint green colour.
  • Original Toothfriendly were created after research into buying trends in Scandinavia. In 1980 a sugar-free tablet was introduced in the original flavour. This was later made available worldwide. These are sold in a packet which are white with diagonal blue stripes.
  • Sugar free Mint were created after the success of the toothfriendly tablets. These are now the top selling Fisherman's Friend flavour in a number of countries. These are sold in packets which are white with diagonal mint green stripes.
  • Sugar free lemon are availble in a number of countries. These makes your mouth tingle. They are sold in white packets which have lemon yellow diagonal stripes.
  • Apple and Cinnamon lozenges were created as a strong yet fresh flavour. These are sold in a white packets which have alternate apple green and cinnamon brown diagonal stripes.
  • Salmiak is a flavour which is only available in a small number of countries. It is best described as a salted licorice and is popular in Finland. These are sold in white packets with diagonal black stripes.

Sources

http://www.fishermansfriend.com
http://www.myvitanet.com/fisfrienprod.html

Re-launched in Australia in Y2000 with a really hot young rave babe in tvcs. Made for a very effective campaign, as the last tvcs that I remember featured a crusty auld salt abord a fishing trawler in gawd-awful stormy seas.

Needless to say I started to buy them, but still can't get the delicious young woman out of my mind's eye everytime I slip one of those refreshing minty treats into my gob.

Ingredients (Super Stong Mint flavour):
Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Thickener (Dextrine), Vegetable Gum, Flavours (yeow!), Colour.

Not just for when you have a cold, you can take them when you're well too! In fact, they're downright addictive, the more you have, the more you want and the less strong they taste.

After having many `friends, the menthol can cause interesting effects on one's taste and temperature perception. A nice deep breath of air feels like ice cold, arctic air. Chilled water tastes like it's liquid nitrogen, to the point where a normally refreshing cool glass of water is so cold it's painful to drink.

I found `friends to be a great cigarette substitute when I gave up smoking.

A `friend in need is a `friend indeed.

Fisherman's Friends are also useful for faking tears. Simply suck on a lozenge (which, incidentally, is a word that rhymes with "orange", contrary to the popular belief that Nothing Rhymes With Orange) for a couple of minutes, cup your hands over your face to direct your breath into your eyes, and exhale.

Caution: this may hurt a bit.

Disclaimer: if it does, that's your problem not mine.

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