# Sour cherries

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**Source:** sweeties.net, online pick and mix sweet shop

## Summary

Sour cherries are cherry shaped sweets with a sour, sugary coat. Two recipes compared: one vegan with wheat, one with gelatine, and why both taste so sharp.

## Description

Sour cherries are cherry shaped sweets, sometimes moulded as a pair of cherries joined at the stalk, and coated in sugar sharpened with acid. Several sweet makers produce them, and the recipes can differ a great deal, as two examples show.
Two recipes, side by side
CandyKing Sour Cherries. CandyKing, a pick and mix supplier, lists sugar, glucose syrup, wheat starch, water, modified starch, lactic, malic and citric acids and sodium malates, flavouring, sodium carbonates, and spirulina, safflower and black carrot concentrates for colour. It describes them as vegan, gelatine free and palm oil free, with 58 g of sugar per 100 g.
Haribo Sour Cherries. The retailer ToffeeWorld lists glucose syrup, sugar, gelatine, dextrose, citric and malic acids, flavourings, fruit and plant concentrates including apple, aronia, blackcurrant, elderberry, grape, kiwi, nettle and spinach, invert sugar syrup and carob extract. It describes them as twin cherries about 5 cm by 4 cm, with about 58 g of sugar per 100 g.
What makes them sour
The sharpness comes from food acids, mixed into the sweet or tumbled over the outside with sugar. Malic acid, found naturally in apples, tastes sourer than citric acid: see what is malic acid in sweets? and how are sour sweets made?
Acids draw in moisture, which can make a sour coating wet and sticky. Partly neutralised acids, such as the sodium malates in CandyKing's recipe, are one way makers keep the coating dry. For why sourness makes your mouth pucker, see why do sour sweets make your mouth pucker?
Diet and allergies
Gelatine. Haribo's version contains gelatine, so it is not suitable for vegetarians or vegans. CandyKing's is set with starch instead.Wheat. CandyKing's contains wheat starch, so it is not suitable for anyone who must avoid wheat: see wheat in sweetsShared scoops. CandyKing itself warns that the scoops at a pick and mix counter are used in different boxes, so allergens can move between them: see pick and mix and allergies
In our pick and mix
We sell SW017 by the 100 g. Recipes differ between makers, so the card opens up to show the full ingredients and allergens for the sour cherries we actually stock.

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