The image here shows the Barratt’s Sherbet Dip Dab as it is today, but it doesn’t seem a million miles away from the packaging I remember. I’m pretty sure the colour scheme is the same, and the image and logo aren’t much different either. I’ve always preferred the Dip Dab to that other classic the Sherbet Fountain simply because I don’t like liquorice.
The Dip Dab consisted of a little paper bag full of sherbet powder and a strawberry flavoured boiled sweet lollipop. Some countries know sherbet as an ice cream or sorbet style food stuff, but for us in the UK sherbet will always be a fizzy white powder that looked a bit like icing sugar, that made your tongue fizz when you ate it. The Dip Dab was therefore aptly named, as you are it by dipping the lolly in the bag, dabbing it in the sherbet, then licking the lolly clean and repeating.
Personally I loved the sherbet much more than the lollipop, so would often purposely eat the lolly as quickly as possible so that I could spoon the rest of the sherbet out of the bag straight into my mouth. Mmm, lovely!
There were a couple of pretenders to the Dip Dab kingly status. The previously mentioned Sherbet Fountain came a close second, since it contained the exact same sherbet powder. A closer competitor, though not as nice in my book, was the Swizzels Double Dip, which contained two pouches of a less tasty sherbet-like concoction, one flavoured orange and the other cherry. You ate this with a Swizzelstick, a lump of fairly tasteless candy.
There also appears to be a new kid in town, in the shape of the Love Hearts Dip, which appears to be similar to the Double Dip, but you get an edible stick that is meant to be Candy Floss flavour, and there are three different flavours to dip into – orange, raspberry and lemon.
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[…] wanted it, then tip the sherbet into a bowl and eat it with a spoon. Â Yum! Â That’s why the Sherbet Dip Dab was really more suited to my tastes, as I preferred the strawberry […]
does anyone remember the see thru plastic bags of crystal sherbet (always yellow) with a different coloured lollipop inside? not dip dabs! cant find anywhere on internet & only 1 person i know remembers them!
sorry if anyone knows what they called pls comment, im on a mission!
i think that dip dab it the best sweet ever made in the UK, because the sherbet is the best part of the dip dab and i love the love heart sweets as well. I get a dip dab nearly every week for my kids and me all my family love dip dabs.
can you please add more sherbet in the packet and can you make them bigger as well.
please reply back
Thank you…
Hey I need to clear up an argument…my friend is convinced that Dip Dabs were origonally called Dib Dabs when they 1st came out..can anyone clarefy this for me please…thanks alot
I really don’t know for sure either way, but I have to admit I always thought it was Dib Dab too. Anybody know the definitive answer to this conundrum?
Hi Liz,
The original (circa1937) was always referred to as a Sherbet Dab comprising sherbet in a small finger length cardboard tube wrapped in brown paper with turned in ends. A liquorice ‘straw’ was provided in one end so you could dip or suck up the sherbet. Sucking resulted in an unpleasant choking sensation. After consuming the sherbet one ate the ‘straw’.
William, I completely agree about the choking sensation when using the liquorice as a straw (plus I dislike liquorice so you can add unpleasant taste to that too). However, it sounds like you’re talking about is what’s now called a Sherbet Fountain (which incidentally are now in a plastic tube which just doesn’t seem right).
We’re referring to the version that came in a paper sachet with a red lolly for spooning up the sherbet.
Thanks Big Boo & William…but yes I am on about the small paper bags with a lollipop in them which are called dip dabs now but need to find out if they were ever called Dib dabs when they first came into the shops :0)
Paula yes i definitely remember the see through bag of yellow crystal sherbert. Did you have any luck.