Sherbet dips

A sherbet dip is exactly what it sounds like: a pack of fizzy sherbet powder and something to dip into it. Sherbet is usually eaten by dipping a lollipop or a liquorice stick into it, using a small spoon, or simply licking it off a finger.

The Sherbet Fountain

One British sherbet dip is Barratt's Sherbet Fountain, sold since 1925. It was a tube of sherbet with a liquorice stick. The idea was sold to Barratt by Henry Edward Brunt and sold under the Barratt name. In the traditional paper packaging, the top of the liquorice stick was meant to be bitten off to make a straw, so the sherbet could be sucked up through it to fizz on the tongue. The modern version, introduced in 2009, comes in a plastic tube with a solid liquorice stick, sold as sherbet with a liquorice dip, and it was not to everyone's satisfaction. See Sherbet Fountains.

The Dip Dab

Ten years later, in 1935, Barratt launched the sherbet Dip Dab: a pack of sherbet with a strawberry flavoured lolly for dipping. It is still sold today and is one of the brand's more popular products. See Dip Dabs.

What sherbet is

British sherbet is a fizzy powder made from sugar and flavouring, together with an edible acid and an edible base. The acid may be tartaric, citric or malic acid, and the base may be bicarbonate of soda or another carbonate. More or less sugar is added depending on how sour the sherbet is meant to be, along with fruit or cream soda flavouring. When the powder meets moisture, such as saliva, the acid and base react and give off gas, which is the fizz.

From drinks to sweets

Sherbet began as a drink. In 1816 John Richards of the Strand, in London, claimed to have invented a portable sherbet powder, to be stirred into water for a sparkling drink. Sherbet powders were used to make fizzy drinks before canned drinks became common. Only later did the word come to mean the powder sold as a sweet.

Other sherbet sweets

Sherbet also turns up inside other sweets. Sherbet lemons hide a sherbet centre inside a lemon boiled sweet, and flying saucers are little discs of wafer paper filled with sherbet. We sell both in our pick and mix: see sherbet lemons and flying saucers. In the north of England, sherbet has another name altogether: see why is sherbet called kali?

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