Sherbet Fountains and more! 09/03/2010

Sherbet is certainly one of the more entertaining forms of confectionery! In a full on sherbet fountain, the sherbet is presented in a dynamite like tube with a liquorice fuse sticking out, the liquorice stick being licked and dunked in the fine powder. It is only recently that the original paper packaging was replaced by a plastic tube – possibly making more sense as it is important sherbet be kept dry but still sad to see the retro packaging go! As a kid I always kept back some of the sherbet to pop into a cup, add water and produce what we called sherbet pop. If there was enough liquorice tube left, that would then be used as a straw to suck up the fizzing mixture.

Equally entertaining but less cartoon like is the sherbet dip-dab or dib-dab as our kids call them; a sachet of sherbet including a flat lolly for licking and dipping.

Another favourite was the flying saucer, a disc of coloured rice paper enclosing a shot of sherbet – very 50's space age in design. The difficult decision with these was whether to nibble the rice paper and tip the sherbet back in one or suck the whole flying saucer, waiting for the rice paper to dissolve and deliver the fizzy kick!

So what magic produces this volatile powder that got up your nose, caught you at the back of the throat, scattered over your clothes and sat in a soggy lump at the bottom of the pack? Clever kitchen chemistry:- sugar to produce the bulk and sweetness, citric acid to provide the tang and interact with the bi-carbonate of soda (or tartaric acid) thus producing the fizz. Granulated sugar produces a coarse sherbet – think rainbow crystals, icing sugar the fine sherbet found in fountains.

Another attractive aspect of sherbet is the cooling effect on the tongue, as the water combines with the citric acid and bi-carb to produce little bubbles they leave a refreshing chill.

As a zingy coating for jelly sweets, coarse sherbet is also very popular – think fizzy cherry cola with that wonderful contrast between the mouth puckering fizzy coating over the sweet, unctuous bottle shaped jelly.As well as the sweets described above, many boiled sweets incorporate sherbet to give a lift and fizz! The sharp acid flavours produced by the process lend themselves to being combined with fruit based flavours; sherbet lemons, limes and oranges. sherbet pips were always a favourite – loads for the money and sherbet straws in their fine pulled sugar casing and pretty colours were ideal for any little princess!