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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

sherbert fountain

English answer:

A cardboard tube of sherbert with a liquorice stick poking out of the top!

Added to glossary by jerrie
Jan 3, 2003 14:58
22 yrs ago
English term

sherbert fountain

Non-PRO English Other food, esp. sweets
Kind of sweet that makes the tongue black with liquorice; what is it exactly?
Responses
4 +4 A cardboard tube of sherbert with a liquorice stick poking out of the top!
5 +1 sherbert fountain

Responses

+4
3 mins
Selected

A cardboard tube of sherbert with a liquorice stick poking out of the top!

The liqourice stick was supposed to be used like a straw for sucking up the sherbert (hence the black lips/tongue), and eventually the cardboard tube would go all soggy, and the sherbert would go all lumpy, and you'd have to open the whole thing up to get out the remaining sherbert.

Think they were made by Barretts (UK), I'll see if I can find a link!

Sherbert is a bit like glucose (sugar).

hth

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Note added at 2003-01-03 15:14:14 (GMT) Post-grading
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http://www.oldsweetshop.com/trolleyed/17/

They were yellow and red! But the photo here doesn\'t show the liquorice stick.

We loved them because they were messy and tasted good!
Peer comment(s):
agree Peter Coles : and what a wonderful memory !!!
4 mins
It was Bassett's ... not Barretts, and the tubes were yellow and red (I think)...I used to love them!!!
agree awilliams : yuck! The sherbet was gorgeous but the liquorice spoiled everything, so we used to pour the sherbet out onto our hands and lick it off. Uurgh.
45 mins
Sticky mouth, sticky fingers, sticky clothes...that's why kids loved 'em!
agree Chris Rowson (X) : I seem to remember the liquorice being a tube, that we sucked the sherbert through. It used to work a bit.
1 hr
A healthy dose of nostalgia for 2003!
agree Sarah Ponting : Yummy, yummy, haven't had one for years. I agree with Amy that the liquorice spoiled it though - I always gave mine to my little brother. There was an orange flavoured version too, called a Jaffa fountain, but that was a later development.
1 hr
...don't remember the Jaffa one...what have I missed!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks a lot. Sounds disgusting, why did so many kids eat/drink it?"
+1
4 mins

sherbert fountain

It's a kind of sweet sold in a paper tube, containing a stick of liquorice and sherbert (fruit-flavoured slightly effervescent powder). You use the liquorice to pick up the sherbert - it can get a bit sticky after a while.
This was quite popular in the UK in the seventies/eighties when I was a kid though you can still buy it today !
Peer comment(s):
agree Peter Coles : though I remember the point being to suck the sherbert up through the hollow liquorice tube. Never workedfor long before the sherbert became too lumpy.
6 mins
you're right - sorry - I just hit 30 and can't remember that far back ! anyway like you say the sherbert soon got too lumpy so the sucking didn't last for long !
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