![Pear drops](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/Pear_drops.jpg)
A pear drop is a British
boiled sweet
A hard candy (American English), or boiled sweet (British English), is a sugar candy prepared from one or more sugar-based syrups that is heated to a temperature of 160 °C (320 °F) to make candy. Among the many hard candy varieti ...
made from
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
and
flavourings
A flavoring (or flavouring), also known as flavor (or flavour) or flavorant, is a food additive used to improve the taste or smell of food. It changes the perceptual impression of food as determined primarily by the chemoreceptors of the gust ...
. The classic pear drop is a combination of half pink and half yellow in a
pear
Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...
-shaped
drop about the size of a thumbnail, although they are more commonly found in packets containing separate yellow drops and pink drops in roughly equal proportions. The artificial flavours
isoamyl acetate
Isoamyl acetate, also known as isopentyl acetate, is an organic compound that is the ester formed from isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid, with the molecular formula
C7H14O2.It is a colorless liquid that is only slightly soluble in water, but very s ...
and
ethyl acetate
Ethyl acetate ( systematically ethyl ethanoate, commonly abbreviated EtOAc, ETAC or EA) is the organic compound with the formula , simplified to . This colorless liquid has a characteristic sweet smell (similar to pear drops) and is used in glues ...
are responsible for the characteristic flavour of pear drops: the former confers a banana flavour, the latter a pear flavour. Both
esters
In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an oxoacid (organic or inorganic) in which at least one hydroxyl group () is replaced by an alkoxy group (), as in the substitution reaction of a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. Glycerides are ...
are used in many pear- and
banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...
-flavoured sweets. However, a natural pear-derived product from pear juice concentrate is sometimes used.
The largest pear drop in the world is housed at
Stockley's Sweets in Oswaldtwistle Mills in
Oswaldtwistle
Oswaldtwistle ( "ozzel twizzel") is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England, southeast of Blackburn, contiguous with Accrington and Church. The town has a rich industrial heritage, being home to James Hargreaves, inventor of the ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
In 2009 a survey of 4,000 adults found that pear drops were the fourteenth most popular sweet in the United Kingdom.
References
British confectionery
Candy
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