I pretty much always have a little bit of a sore throat due to chronic sinus problems and also my medicine, so when I heard Pine Brothers were looking for people to review for them, I jumped at the chance. Here is the background information about this company which I was provided with:
Ulysses S. Grant was President, the population of America hovered at 39 million, and the telephone was still a pipe dream, when in 1870 J. Herman Pine hung out a confectionery shingle on 8th Street above Walnut in Philadelphia and, along with his brother, sold their first batch of what they called 'Pine Brothers Glycerine Tablets.' In an attempt to relieve his own sore throat and those of his family members, Mr. Pine, a former German confectionery maker, determined that by combining the soothing natural qualities of glycerin with the healing properties of gum acacia, he could sooth and mitigate the mild discomfort of a sore throat. Add in some natural flavoring and a sweetener and voila, Pine Brothers Softish Throat Drops were born. "I have discovered something," Pine wrote, "which will give quick throat relief to thousands afflicted as I was." He added,"Perhaps I won't make much money out of this. But I can make people happy, and that's more important than money." Mr. Pine was being unduly modest, as his "discovery" would become one of the most successful, most delicious and most unique throat lozenges in the world. Nor has the recipe changed appreciably since it was first introduced to the public over 140 years ago.
In 1930 Pine Brothers was sold to the Life Savers Company and continued to flourish. Known for its 'soft drop consistency,' Pine Brothers lozenges became a favorite of adults and children alike. The product, which attracted healthiest sales in the eastern and northern states, due to its icy winters, reached its peak popularity in the 1970's. The company was sold by Life Savers, and then, having been re-sold and acquired a number of times, found itself essentially rudderless and under appreciated; this despite a legion of loyal consumers. Cost cutting changes were made to the original recipes, packaging became stale and marketing non-existent; Pine Brothers began to be made overseas. Sales declined.
Recently, Pine Brothers was acquired by the creator and former owner of Airborne, Victoria Knight-McDowell, for her new company 3 Sisters Home Products™. Much time and effort has been spent locating the original Pine Brothers recipes, redesigning the packaging, and creating an exciting yet classic new look. The natural product is once again being made in America, and is launching nationally in fall 2011. At which time old Mr. Pine, will succeed once again in "making people happy." God bless him!
Pine Brothers were very generous and provided me with 4 bags of their throat drops as well as 4 pucks. I shared the generosity by enlisting some friends to help try these out. Mike, Amanda and I all really liked these. Amanda particularly really enjoyed the Wild Cherry flavor drops. Josh was the only one who didn't care for these; he tried one of the Natural Honey flavored drops, didn't like it and I couldn't get him to try one of the Wild Cherry. So overall, these were a hit in my family.
These drops are not at all like cough drops, they are, as the name implies, soft. They're glycerin based and so it kind of takes some getting used to if you're used to menthol products, because you won't find menthol in these. They do seem to help with my sore throat, so I've been using these a lot. I found the flavor to be pretty weak, so I use 2 at once to get a better flavor. Mike pointed out these are strange because they don't taste like candy, as other products do. The texture reminds me a bit of fruit rollups. I think they're quite good, and they do the job.
There's a few things I love about these:
They're made in America.
They're available online or in most drug stores (drugstore.com, CVS, Walgreens to name a few.)
Personally I prefer the puck container, just because it's more convenient and of course I can reuse it for something or other. The bags do contain more drops, however. I'll have to see how these hold up to my throat when I'm actually sick, but I would consider purchasing these in the future.
These drops just happen to be on sale at Drugstore.com right now. Both the bags and pucks are on sale for $2.99 but the pucks are BOGO! I just happened to see this today and thought I'd pass along the savings :)
You can find more information about Pine Brothers on their Web site, including additional flavors and where to buy them. You can also find them on their social media pages:
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
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