teas.co.uk
Tea and coffee from the brands you know
Lemon drops
Bright yellow, sugar dusted and sharp enough to make you pucker. The lemon drop is an English invention, and it depends on a clever bit of sweet making chemistry.
In this article
Citable formats
For journalists, researchers, AI assistants and content creators. Pick the format you need:
Free to cite, quote, and reuse with attribution to sweeties.net.
The lemon drop is one of the simplest boiled sweets there is: a little yellow sweet, dusted with sugar, that tastes of lemon.
What a lemon drop is
A lemon drop is a sugar coated, lemon flavoured sweet, usually coloured yellow and often shaped like a tiny lemon. Some are sweet and gentle, others sharp and sour. The name is sometimes also used for lemon flavoured throat sweets, and it has been borrowed by a vodka cocktail made with lemon juice and sugar.
How lemon drops are made
Lemon drops are made by boiling sugar, water and cream of tartar until the mixture reaches the hard crack stage, when it will set hard and glassy. As it cools, the lemon flavouring is added. The sweet mixture is then rolled into long ropes, cut into small pieces and rolled in sugar, which gives them their sugary coat.
An English idea
Lemon drops began in England. Confectioners there learned that adding an acid, such as lemon juice, to boiling sugar stopped the sugar from crystallising, so the sweets stayed clear and hard instead of turning grainy. Cream of tartar, potassium bitartrate, works in a similar way: its acidic properties stop sugar syrups from crystallising, which is why it is used in smooth sweets.
Sour lemon drops
For the sharpest lemon drops, the sweets are rolled not in plain sugar but in sour sanding, sometimes called sour sugar. This is sugar mixed with food acids such as citric acid, tartaric acid and malic acid. It is the same coating used on many sour sweets. For a similar old fashioned sweet, see acid drops.
Lemon drop or sherbet lemon?
A lemon drop is solid all the way through. Its cousin, the sherbet lemon, has a surprise inside: a crisp lemon boiled sweet with a fizzy sherbet centre. We sell sherbet lemons in our pick and mix, and there is more about them in sherbet lemons.
Citable formats
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 lemon drops?
Small, sugar coated boiled sweets with a lemon flavour, usually yellow and often shaped like a lemon. They can be sweet or quite sour.
How are lemon drops made?
Sugar, water and cream of tartar are boiled to the hard crack stage. Lemon flavour is added as the mixture cools, then it is rolled into long ropes, cut into small pieces and rolled in sugar.
What is the difference between lemon drops and sherbet lemons?
A lemon drop is a solid boiled sweet. A sherbet lemon is a lemon boiled sweet with a fizzy sherbet powder hidden in the middle.
Sources
- Lemon drop (candy), Wikipedia
- Sour sanding, Wikipedia
- Potassium bitartrate, Wikipedia
Keep reading
- British heritage sweetsSherbet lemonsSherbet lemons are sharp lemon boiled sweets with a fizzy sherbet centre. The fizz comes from an acid and bicarbonate that react on your tongue.
- British heritage sweetsAcid dropsAcid drops are old fashioned boiled sweets made sharp with citric or tartaric acid. What they are, how the sour coating works, and how they differ.
- 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.
- British heritage sweetsBarley sugarBarley sugar is a golden boiled sweet, traditionally twisted into sticks and first made with barley water. Here is what it is and how it got its name.
- British heritage sweetsOld fashioned sweets: the A to ZAn A to Z of old fashioned British sweets, from acid drops and aniseed balls to Wham bars and yellowman, with a line on each and a link to its full story.