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Refreshers
Ask for Refreshers and you might get fizzy little tablets, or a chewy sweet with sherbet inside. Both are real, and the name has caused confusion for years.
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In Britain, two quite different sweets share the name Refreshers. One is a fizzy compressed tablet sweet. The other is a flat, chewy sweet with sherbet hidden inside. Here is how to tell them apart.
The tablet Refreshers
The original Refreshers are small, fizzy compressed tablet sweets. According to the history of Trebor, the London sweet maker, Refreshers were launched in 1935. Trebor was bought by Cadbury in 1989 and became part of Trebor Bassett. In 2008 Tangerine Confectionery, now Valeo Foods, bought a group of sweet brands from Cadbury, and today the tablet Refreshers are sold under the Barratt brand, alongside the Dip Dab, the Sherbet Fountain, Black Jacks and Fruit Salad. Barratt's own brand history dates the release of Barratt Refreshers to the 1940s. The Barratt range also includes Refreshers Softies.
The name has a long history at Barratt: in the 1880s the firm was already making a sweet called Refresher Sticks.
The chewy Refreshers
The other Refreshers are made by Swizzels, the New Mills firm behind Love Hearts, Parma Violets and Drumsticks. They are flat, chewy sweets with sherbet in the middle, in lemon and strawberry flavours, and they are among Swizzels' most popular products. To avoid trademark confusion with Barratt's compressed tablet Refreshers, Swizzels officially calls them New Refreshers. See Drumstick lollies.
Why they fizz
Fizzy sweets like these typically get their fizz the same way as sherbet: a food acid and a base, such as bicarbonate of soda, which react when they meet the moisture in your mouth and give off carbon dioxide. For more on sherbet, see sherbet dips.
Other fizzy tablets
Swizzels also makes Fizzers, rolled tablet sweets that fizz and dissolve when put into fizzy drinks, and Parma Violets, which are disc shaped tablets like Fizzers but lilac, with a perfumed taste and no fizz: see Parma Violets.
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Questions and answers
Who makes Refreshers?
There are two. The fizzy compressed tablet Refreshers began with Trebor in 1935 and are now sold under the Barratt brand. The chewy sherbet filled Refreshers are made by Swizzels, officially called New Refreshers.
What are Swizzels Refreshers?
Flat, chewy sweets with sherbet in the middle, in lemon and strawberry flavours. Swizzels calls them New Refreshers to avoid confusion with the tablet sweet of the same name.
When did Refreshers come out?
Trebor launched Refreshers in 1935. Barratt had sold Refresher Sticks as early as the 1880s.
Sources
- Trebor (confectionery), Wikipedia
- Barratt (confectionery), Wikipedia
- Swizzels, Wikipedia
- Barratt Sweetshop, Valeo Foods UK
- Sherbet (powder), Wikipedia
Keep reading
- British heritage sweetsDrumstick lolliesThe Drumstick is Swizzels' chewy milk and raspberry lolly, first made in 1957 in New Mills, Derbyshire. The lolly and the family firm behind it.
- British heritage sweetsLove HeartsLove Hearts are tablet sweets printed with messages like Be Mine, made by Swizzels in Derbyshire since 1954. They grew from Victorian message sweets.
- British heritage sweetsParma VioletsParma Violets are violet flavoured tablet sweets made by Swizzels in Derbyshire since 1946. People either love the floral taste or say it is like eating soap.
- British heritage sweetsDip DabsThe Dip Dab is Barratt's sherbet dip: a packet of fizzy sherbet with a strawberry flavoured lolly for dipping. It was launched in 1935 and is still made today.
- British heritage sweetsSherbet dipsSherbet dips pair fizzy sherbet with something to dip in it: a liquorice stick, a lolly or a finger. The Sherbet Fountain and Dip Dab are two of them.
- 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.