Sherbet powder

Sherbet powder is a fizzy, sweet powder, usually eaten by dipping a lollipop or liquorice, using a small spoon, or licking it from a finger.

Sherbet in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries is a fizzy powder, containing sugar and flavoring, and an edible acid and base. The acid may be tartaric, citric or malic acid, and the base may be sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, or a mixture of these. To make the flavor more palatable, a variable amount of sugar (depending on the intended sourness of the final product) is added, as well as fruit or cream soda flavoring. The acid-carbonate reaction occurs upon presence of moisture, becoming "fizzy".

The word "sherbet" is from Turkish şerbet, which is from Persian شربت, which in turn comes from sharbat (Arabic شَرْبَة sharbah), a drink, from shariba "to drink". The word is cognate to "syrup" in English. Historically it was a cool effervescent or iced fruit soft drink. The meaning, spelling and pronunciation have fractured between different countries.

German Brausepulver is similar, and while originally sold as such, is often not mixed with water nowadays, but eaten by children by dipping a wet finger into it, or by grown-ups in combination with vodka.

Sherbet used to be stirred into various beverages to make effervescing drinks, in a similar way to making lemonade from lemonade powders, before canned carbonated drinks became ubiquitous. Sherbet is now used to mean this powder sold as a sweet. (In the United States, it would be somewhat comparable to the powder in Pixy Stix or Fun Dip, though having the fizzy quality of effervescing candy, such as Pop Rocks.)

Sherbet lemon Sherbet lemons Sherbet lemons are a popular sweet in the UK, and are sold in most sweet shops. They are boiled sweets which have an intense lemon flavour with powdered sherbet centres. Variants, such as sherbet fruits including sherbet limes, strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries and orange are all popular flavours. The sherbet lemon has a strong citrus taste and is sour and tangy. The sherbet in the middle releases, giving a sensation of extreme lemon bittersweet with fizzy light tangy crisp sour. In the Harry Potter series, the character Albus Dumbledore has a particular fondness for sherbet lemons; their name is the passphrase for access to his office. A similar candy, made in Italy and popular in the United States, is Zotz, a brand sold in various fruit flavours.

Sherbet Fountain Traditional version of Barratt's Sherbet Fountain Barratt's "Sherbet Fountain" consists of a 25g tube of sherbet with a liquorice stick, and has been sold since 1925. An alternative version consists of a strawberry flavour hard gelatine candy stick, which is red in colour. The original concept of the sherbet fountain was sold to Barratt's by Henry Edward Brunt, and was rebranded under their name. In the traditional paper packaging, the top of the stick was intended to be bitten off to form a straw and the sherbet sucked through it, where it fizzes and dissolves on the tongue. The "new" format only includes a solid liquorice stick, so the sherbet must be licked off that, or eaten directly. This method of consumption was also considered acceptable with the original packaging, which has since been replaced with a solid plastic tube to improve the product's freshness and shelf life. This is advertised on the packet as "sherbet with a liquorice dip".

With fruit flavoured lollipop Sherbet dips or sherbet dabs are also popular, such as the Dip Dab by Barratt. They consist of a 23g packet of "lemon flavour sherbet dip with a strawberry flavour lolly" sealed into the bag. The sherbet is sucked clean from the lollipop, it can be repeatedly dipped into the sherbet then sucked clean, or used to spoon the sherbet direct into the mouth.

Flying saucers Main article: Flying saucer (confectionery) Flying saucers are small dimpled discs of edible coloured paper (rice paper), typically filled with white unflavoured sherbet (the same form as in Sherbet Fountains). The first flying saucers were produced in the 1950s in Belgium.

Slang Sherbet has been used in parts of both the UK and Australia as slang for an alcoholic drink, especially beer. This use is noted in a slang dictionary as early as 1890, and still appears in lists of slang terms written today (especially lists of Australian slang). "We're heading to the pub for a few sherbets" – meaning "... pints of beer."