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The word quatro (or perhaps more correctly quattro) was strangely popular during the 1980’s for some reason. There was leather clad rock chick Suzi Quatro, and the Audi Quattro, most recently made popular again by DCI Gene Hunt in Ashes to Ashes.
Software house Borland even named a spreadsheet program Quattro, the idea being that Quattro, meaning four in Italian, was one better than three, thus making their piece of software better than the then market leader in the spreadsheet market Lotus 1-2-3. I think perhaps that this particular one needs too much explanation.
However, possibly even worse than the number crunching software was a fizzy drink called Quatro. Packaged in a white can with four coloured squares (green, orange, yellow and reddish orange) and a stylised white letter Q, Quatro was a mixed fruit flavoured carbonated drink.
So far so good then. Â It even had a rather cool TV advert which looked like a mixture of Tron and Bladerunner, with a bit of Duran Duran video thrown in for good measure. Â According to this advert the drink supposedly consisted of pineapple, orange, plum and grapefruit (or possibly melon, the video I found on YouTube is a little grainy and it’s hard to be sure exactly what those last two fruits actually were), and this is where things start to go wrong.
Quatro, you see, was a very interesting bright green colour. Â It was the sort of colour that you can imagine the slime to be that converted ordinary pet turtles in turtles of the ninja (or hero) variety. Â Quite how the four featured fruits could combine to produce green I don’t know, which leads me to conclude that Quatro must have been full of all kinds of wonderful colourings and E-numbers, and this is probably the reason why it is no longer available.
To be honest I can’t quite remember what it tasted like. Â I don’t remember having that many cans of the stuff so I’m guessing it was mediocre at best, so I think it’s safe to say that this is one thing from the eighties which nobody is particularly going to mourn over. Â And to think they had the audacity to give it the slogan “It’s a miracle, but we’ve made it“.
LOL! I loved quattro, though I couldn’t tell you why now. Probably because it was bright green! Though it never eclipsed Lilt in the fuity flavour department.
Orange, Pineapple, Passion Fruit & Grapefruit. And I mourned over Quatro for ages at the time, as it was my favourite drink as a kid.
I woke up this morning and the smell of a passion fruit shower gel (My Wife’s btw) reminded me of Quatro. I remember there being Quatro cards passed about with the logo on it, which as kids we thought were for Quatro only vending machines. Never found a machine. The strongest flavour from memory was grapefruit and the smell was obviously passion fruit. I loved the drink but don’t remember drinking that much of it.
It’s funny how seeing or smelling something can suddenly awake an old memory of something completely unrelated. As to the Quatro only vending machine, I’m sure the only one in existence was in the TV advert, but as a kid you instantly assume they must exist because you’ve seen one on TV!
same happened to me , i just now opened a can of orange and passion fruit sunkist and the first sip reminded me of QUATRO , such a gret drink I still long for , after all these years, hopefully it may return just as WHISPA did ? fingers crossed
Got a bottle of Tesco fizzy pineapple & passionfruit, colour was pinky orange, but it tasted exactly like I remembered Quatro. Seems that passionfruit is the magic ingredient here.
I loved it and wondered what happened to it – a sad day
Anyone who wants to experience the taste of quatro, only has to go and buy a can of RELENTLESS in the GREEN can, this is very close in the taste department, it includes tropical juice so maybe the passion fruit is the key?
I only had the drink a few times, but I bought it mostly because I thought the advert was the coolest thing ever when it came out. And the link with Audi Quattros didn’t hurt….
Well …good to see that despite the less than favourable post…everyone else mourns its passing !!
I was one of the team that launched it..yes indeed..it was ground breaking in terms of product (actually it was much higher fruit juice content than anything else in ths category then and NOT full of e numbers !!) and also in terms of advertising….
Good to hear it wasn’t full of E numbers Paul, I just kind of assumed that something that was such a bright colour had to be full of artificial this that and the other. Glad to be proved wrong.
There certainly does seem to be a lot of love for the drink though. Who made it originally, and could there be any chance of a come back?
I loved it, and the adverts. Just seeing it again brought back good memories. I mourn it’s passing if no one else does.Had one of the credit cards back in the day and wish I still had it.
I loved Quatro ! So glad I found this site its bringing back
Some fond memories
@Paul: any chance that Quatro could make a comeback anytime soon? I loved the stuff, almost lived on it as a kid (one can to take to school every single morning, and an ice-cold in the fridge for when I got back home…), it was one of those staples that I instantly missed when it suddenly disappeared from the shelves.
Quatro was awesome although I was quite young when it was out, until I found this post I actually thought the drink was just called “Q” lol I was probably just grasping the concept of letters and reading and completly missed the wording around the can, always used to have this at my nan and grandads so good times.
I have found that particular varietys of the drink “RIO” (get it at your local asian shop/costcutter/nisa etc) tasted very similar to how I remembered quatro tasting
but even these are different now, I’m sure its down to reduced sugar content in most things these days does anyone else agree that Pepsi to name one doesnt taste anywhere near as good as it did 10-15 years ago. to me a standard pepsi today tastes like a diet version from back then. bring back full fat full sugar I say!!!!!!
p.s
ANYONE REMEMBER TAB-CLEAR?
Quatro was the best sparkling mixed fruit crush. The ingredients were (in order) carbonated water, sugar, fruit juices (pineapple, orange, grapefruit, passion fruit), citric acid, flavourings, preservatives (E282, E211) stabiliser (E410) colours (E104, E110, E132). I still have a 330ml can (empty) as a reminder.
Look at all those E numbers! Yum!
It was a great drink. Not mediocre at all.four fruit flavours blended in a soft drink that was cool to drink.
I was a huge lover of this drink during its time, which sadly was only for 4 years (82-86). I have started a FB group as a homage to it, if anyone would like to join.
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=254403724939630
What moron wrote this? He got the ingredients wrong and couldn’t remember the taste of it but yet still deigns his opinion (negative) worthy?
If you read through the comments you’ll see I was right about the E numbers though…
And anyway, even if my original post was less than favourable it has at least brought lovers of the drink together, so that can’t be a bad thing, can it!