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Kola kubes
Small, square, sugar dusted and tasting of cola. Kola kubes are sold in sweet shops, and their odd spelling points back to an African nut.
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Kola kubes, also sold as cola cubes, are a boiled sweet of the British sweet shop: small square sweets with a cola flavour, dusted in sugar. Ours are sugar dusted cola cubes, sharp and sweet.
What they are
A kola kube is a cube shaped boiled sweet flavoured like cola and coated in a layer of sugar. They sit alongside other chunky, sugar dusted boiled sweets such as pineapple chunks: see pineapple chunks.
Why the K?
The unusual spelling points back to where cola got its name. The word cola comes from the kola nut, the seed of trees of the genus Cola, which are native to the tropical rainforests of Africa. Kola nuts contain caffeine, and they were used to flavour early soft drinks: a stimulating drink made with kola appeared in the United States around 1880, and the name cola for a whole type of drink comes from this use.
Where cola flavour comes from
Modern cola flavour is a blend rather than a single ingredient. The main flavourings in a cola drink are citrus oils, from orange, lime and lemon peel, together with cinnamon, vanilla and an acidic flavouring, and each maker adds its own trace flavourings, which can include spices such as nutmeg or coriander. Modern cola drinks generally get their caffeine from other sources than the kola nut.
So a kola kube usually tastes of cola because it is flavoured to taste like the drink, rather than because it is made from the nut. The ingredients of any particular sweet will be on its pack or product page.
Cola and the sweet shop
Cola flavour turns up all over the sweet shop. Alongside kola kubes there are cola bottles, the gummy sweets shaped like little bottles, and fizzy cola bottles. We sell kola kubes, cola bottles and fizzy cola bottles in our pick and mix.
For more traditional boiled sweets, see rhubarb and custard sweets and pear drops, and for how they are made, see how are boiled sweets made?
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For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
Questions and answers
What are kola kubes?
Small cube shaped boiled sweets with a cola flavour, coated in sugar. They are also sold as cola cubes.
Why are kola kubes spelled with a K?
The spelling echoes the kola nut, the African seed from which the word cola comes. The nut was used to flavour early cola drinks.
Do kola kubes contain kola nut?
Cola flavour today usually comes from a blend of flavourings such as citrus oils, cinnamon and vanilla, rather than from the nut. Always check the ingredients on the pack or product page for any particular sweet.
Sources
Keep reading
- British heritage sweetsPineapple chunksPineapple chunks are golden, sugar dusted boiled sweets with a tangy pineapple flavour, named after a fruit that was once a Georgian status symbol.
- British heritage sweetsRhubarb and custard sweetsRhubarb and custard sweets are two tone boiled sweets, half sharp rhubarb and half smooth custard, named after a British pudding pairing.
- British heritage sweetsPear dropsPear drops are pink and yellow British boiled sweets with a sharp, fruity flavour that comes from two esters, one tasting of pear and one of banana.
- How it is madeHow are boiled sweets made?Boiled sweets are sugar syrup boiled to around 160°C, flavoured, coloured and shaped while warm, then set into a glassy solid about 98 per cent sugar.
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