{"product_id":"vintage-keana-rose-flavored-syrup-label-london-england-treasures","title":"Vintage 1980s London Keana Rose Syrup Label 🌹 Collectible","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWhat Was Keana Rose Syrup? 🌹 A Rose From Blackstock Road\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 4 1\/2\" x 3 1\/2\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VOrUo1YG_js\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis label never made it onto a bottle. Printed for \u003cstrong\u003eKeana Rose Flavoured Syrup\u003c\/strong\u003e by Keana Co. of 116 Blackstock Road, London N4, it carries one of the boldest roses ever put on a grocery label: a coral-red bloom in a black oval that jumps off a chartreuse and lavender ground. The artwork has since been copied onto poster prints sold as wall decor. This is an original printed label, unused, 4 1\/2\" x 3 1\/2\" ~.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eWhat Is Printed on It\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA tall paper label printed in full color. Across the top in dark green is \u003cstrong\u003eKEANA®\u003c\/strong\u003e, with \u003cstrong\u003eROSE FLAVOURED SYRUP\u003c\/strong\u003e curving beneath it. In the center a coral-red rose with green leaves sits on a black ground, framed by a twisting brown vine with orange highlights that wraps the whole label and sprouts leaves at the corners. The lower half turns lavender. On the left: \u003cstrong\u003eCONTENTS 720 ml ℮\u003c\/strong\u003e. On the right: \u003cstrong\u003eBEST BEFORE END\u003c\/strong\u003e, with no date filled in. Along the bottom:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIngredients: Sugar, Water, Flavour, Malic Acid, Stabiliser (E466), Preservative (E211), Colours (E122, E142).\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA small red rosebud sits in the lower right corner, and the last line reads \u003cstrong\u003eKEANA CO. 116 BLACKSTOCK ROAD, LONDON N4\u003c\/strong\u003e. The back is blank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eReading the Fine Print Like a Date Stamp\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEvery line of small print on this label is there because a law asked for it, and those laws date it. Until 1980 British law did not require food to carry any date at all. The Food Labelling Regulations 1980 brought UK law into line with the 1979 EC labeling directive, 79\/112\/EEC, which required a date of minimum durability: the best-before date. The ingredient list names each additive by its job and its E number, Stabiliser (E466), Preservative (E211), Colours (E122, E142), the category-and-number format set out in the schedules of the Food Labelling Regulations 1984, which came into operation on 19 September 1984. The little ℮ beside 720 ml is the European estimated sign, from EEC directives of 1974 and 1976, which lets a pack be sold across member states without re-checking its fill. A label carrying all three was printed in the 1980s or later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eE122, E211 and the Southampton Six\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo ingredients on this little rose label had a future nobody saw coming. E122 is carmoisine, a red azo food color, and E211 is the preservative sodium benzoate. In September 2007 The Lancet published a study from the University of Southampton, by Jim Stevenson, Donna McCann, Edmund Sonuga-Barke and John Warner, which found that mixtures of six artificial colors, carmoisine among them, together with sodium benzoate, were linked to increased hyperactivity in some children. On 10 April 2008 the Food Standards Agency recommended to ministers that the six colors be phased out of food and drink and asked manufacturers to remove them voluntarily. The study led to a warning label: from 20 July 2010, food and drink still containing any of the \"Southampton six\" had to say the color may have effects on activity and attention in children. Carmoisine is listed as banned in the United States, Canada, Japan and Norway.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eBlackstock Road, London N4\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKeana Co. gave its address as 116 Blackstock Road. The road runs from Seven Sisters Road south-west to Highbury in north London, near Finsbury Park and Arsenal stations. It began as a dirt track called Boarded River Lane, after a 462-foot wooden aqueduct that carried the New River over the shallow valley of Highbury Vale and Hackney Brook; the New River was put into a pipeline alongside Green Lanes in 1866. At the Peace News offices on the road in 1958, artist Gerald Holtom first unveiled his symbol for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The northern end, full of Algerian cafés, is known as Little Algiers, and in November 2025 Time Out named Blackstock Road among the coolest streets in Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eThe Rose in the Glass: The Lore of an Old Drink\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRose syrup is a far older idea than any London label. Rose water most likely began in Persia, where it is called golab, from gol, rose, and ab, water. Legend gives the credit for distilling it to Ibn Sina, the Bukharan-born physician known in the West as Avicenna, who lived from 980 to 1037 and worked out how to use the still to draw the essence out of flower petals. Add sugar to rose water and you have rose syrup. Sharbat, the sweet syrup drinks of Persia seasoned with roses, sandalwood and hibiscus, are first mentioned in a 12th-century Persian medical encyclopedia, the Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi. Rose still flavors laddu, gulab jamun and peda in South Asia, Turkish delight and baklava in the Middle East, and a red rose cordial called sirap mawar in Southeast Asia, and Iran today supplies around 90 percent of the world's rose water.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eA Label Worth Framing\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat rose has been reproduced as poster art, but posters are copies. This is the kind of original label they were made from, printed to go on a real bottle of rose syrup sold out of north London, and never used. They aren't making any more of them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003eQuestions People Ask\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow old is the Keana Rose Flavoured Syrup label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt dates to the 1980s or later. Its BEST BEFORE END line and its E-number ingredient list follow British food labeling law first brought in during 1980 and 1984.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhat is E122?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCarmoisine, a red food color and one of the six colors in the 2007 Southampton hyperactivity study.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhere was Keana Co.?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 116 Blackstock Road, London N4, between Finsbury Park and Highbury.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow big is the label?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFour and a half inches tall by three and a half wide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHas it been used?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNo. It was never put on a bottle, and the back is clean and blank.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHow much syrup did the bottle hold?\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e720 ml, as printed on the label.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-cookes-blackcurrant-cordial-label-wellingborough-england\"\u003eVintage Cooke's Blackcurrant Cordial Label 🫐 from 1980s-1990s England\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1930s-dixie-home-peanut-butter-label-greenville-sc-winn-dixie\"\u003eAntique Dixie Home Peanut Butter Label 🥜 from the 1930s\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1910s-new-england-vermont-maple-sap-syrup-label-boston-ma\"\u003eAntique 1910s 🍁 New England Vermont Maple Sap Syrup Label NOS Boston MA\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43495548649704,"sku":"VAG-7878898942184","price":5.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.4033822116_sqy1.jpg?v=1785357396","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/vintage-keana-rose-flavored-syrup-label-london-england-treasures","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}