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 Jars of colourful sherbet powder in a sweet shop | |
| Alternative names | Soda powder |
|---|---|
| Type | Confectionery |
| Main ingredients | Sugar, flavouring, edible acid and base |
Sherbet is a fizzy, sweet powder, usually eaten by dipping a lollipop or liquorice, using a small spoon, or licking it from a finger.
The word "sherbet" is from Turkish şerbet, which is from Persian شربت, which in turn comes from "sharbat", Arabic شَرْبَةsharbah, a drink, from "shariba" to drink. The word is cognate to syrup in English. Historically it was a cool effervescent or iced fruit soft drink. The meaning, spelling and pronunciation have fractured between different countries.
Beginning with the 19th century sherbet powder became popular, [1] with John Richards (of The Strand, London) in 1816 claiming to be the inventor of Richards' effervescent Portable Sherbet Powder - just add water for a refreshing drink. [2]
"Put a spoonful of the powder in a cup of water, mix it and drink it as soon as possible, during the time of sparkling. ... Because this way the most of acid of air is lost ... it is more practicable to put the powder into the mouth and flush it with some water." [1] 2 g of sodium bicarbonate and 1.5 g of tartaric acid were separately packed in little coloured paper bags.[ clarification needed ] [1]
Sherbet used to be stirred into various beverages to make effervescing drinks, in a similar way to making lemonade from lemonade powders, before canned carbonated drinks became ubiquitous. Sherbet is now used to mean this powder sold as a sweet. (In the United States, it would be somewhat comparable to the powder in Pixy Stix or Fun Dip, though having the fizzy quality of effervescing candy, such as Pop Rocks.)
Sherbet in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries is a fizzy powder, containing sugar and flavouring, and an edible acid and base. The acid may be tartaric, citric or malic acid, and the base may be sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, or a mixture of these and/or other similar carbonates.[ citation needed ] To make the flavour more palatable, a variable amount of sugar (depending on the intended sourness of the final product) is added, as well as fruit or cream soda flavouring. The acid-carbonate reaction occurs upon presence of moisture (juice/saliva), becoming "fizzy".
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Sherbet can be sold by itself or used as a decorative agent on other sweets. The measured qualities of sherbet include granularity, colour, "zing" (acidity) and flavouring (normally a citrus fruit).
Sherbet lemons are a popular sweet in the UK, and are sold in most sweet shops. They are boiled sweets which have an intense lemon flavour with powdered sherbet centres. Variants, such as sherbet fruits including sherbet limes, strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and orange are all popular flavours. The sherbet lemon has a strong citrus taste and is sour and tangy. The sherbet in the middle releases, giving a sensation of extreme lemon bittersweet with fizzy light tangy crisp sour. [3]
In the Harry Potter series, the character Albus Dumbledore has a particular fondness for sherbet lemons; their name is the passphrase for access to his office.
A similar candy, made in Italy and popular in the United States, is Zotz, a brand sold in various fruit flavours.
Barratt's "Sherbet Fountain" consists of a 25g tube of sherbet with a liquorice stick, and has been sold since 1925. An alternative version consists of a strawberry flavour hard gelatine candy stick, which is red in colour. The original concept of the sherbet fountain was sold to Barratt's by Henry Edward Brunt, and was rebranded under their name.
In the traditional paper packaging, the top of the stick was intended to be bitten off to form a straw [4] and the sherbet sucked through it, where it fizzes and dissolves on the tongue. The "new" format only includes a solid liquorice stick, so the sherbet must be licked off that, or eaten directly. This method of consumption was also considered acceptable with the original packaging, which has since been replaced with a solid plastic tube to improve the product's freshness and shelf life. This is advertised on the packet as "sherbet with a liquorice dip".
Sherbet dips or sherbet dabs are also popular, such as the Dip Dab by Barratt. They consist of a 23g packet of "lemon flavour sherbet dip with a strawberry flavour lolly" sealed into the bag. The sherbet is sucked clean from the lollipop, it can be repeatedly dipped into the sherbet then sucked clean, or used to spoon the sherbet direct into the mouth.
Flying saucers are small dimpled discs of edible coloured paper (rice paper), [5] typically filled with white unflavoured sherbet (the same form as in Sherbet Fountains). The first flying saucers were produced in the 1950s in Belgium. [6]
Sherbet has been used in parts of both the UK and Australia as slang for an alcoholic drink, especially beer. This use is noted in a slang dictionary as early as 1890, and still appears in lists of slang terms written today (especially lists of Australian slang). "We're heading to the pub for a few sherbets" – meaning "... pints of beer." [7]
Liquorice or licorice is the common name of Glycyrrhiza glabra, a flowering plant of the bean family Fabaceae, from the root of which a sweet, aromatic flavouring is extracted.
Squash, is a non-alcoholic beverage with syrup used in beverage making. It is usually fruit-flavoured, made from fruit juice, water, and sugar or a sugar substitute. Modern squashes may also contain food colouring and additional flavouring. Some traditional squashes contain herbal extracts, most notably elderflower and ginger.
Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored drink.
Pixy Stix are a sweet and sour colored powdered candy usually packaged in a wrapper that resembles a drinking straw.
Mentos are a brand of packaged scotch mints or mint-flavored candies sold in many stores and vending machines. First produced in 1932, they are currently sold in more than 130 countries worldwide by the Italian-Dutch corporation Perfetti Van Melle. The mints are small oblate spheroids, with a slightly hard exterior and a soft, chewy interior.
Tyrkisk peber is a salty liquorice candy flavoured with salmiac, produced by the Finnish company Fazer and popular in Northern Europe.
Liquorice allsorts are assorted liquorice confectionery sold as a mixture. Made of liquorice, sugar, coconut, aniseed jelly, fruit flavourings, and gelatine, they were first produced in Sheffield, England, by Geo. Bassett & Co Ltd.
Liquorice or licorice is a confection usually flavoured and coloured black with the extract of the roots of the liquorice plant Glycyrrhiza glabra.
Fruit-tella are chewy sweets similar to Sugus, Starburst and Chewits. They are made using real fruit juice, natural colours and natural flavours, sugar and gelatine. They are made by Perfetti Van Melle, the company that also manufactures Mentos and Chupa Chups.
Creamola Foam was a soft drink produced in the form of effervescent crystals that were mixed with water. It was manufactured in Glasgow and sold in the UK from the 1950s, until Nestlé ended production in October 1998.
Wizz Fizz is an Australian brand of sherbet manufactured by Fyna Foods Australia Pty Ltd.
Double Dip is a confectionery produced by Swizzels Matlow, where it has been popular in the United Kingdom, Australia and Germany. Towards the end of the 1980s Double Dip hit its peak of popularity when the sherbet based confection became the best selling sweet in Ireland.
Swizzels Matlow Limited, branded as Swizzels, is a confectionery manufacturer based in New Mills, Derbyshire, near Stockport in the United Kingdom.
Zotz is a candy manufactured by G.B. Ambrosoli S.p.A. in Italy and distributed in the United States by Andre Prost, Inc. It is a fizzy, sour center hard candy that contains sherbet.
Barratt is a confectionery brand in the United Kingdom, known for products including DipDab, Refreshers, Sherbet Fountain, Fruit Salad, Black Jack and Wham.
Sharbat is a drink prepared from fruit or flower petals. It is a sweet cordial, and usually served chilled. It can be served in concentrated form and eaten with a spoon or diluted with water to create the drink.
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