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 Candy making#Hard candy, make candy. Among the ...

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 Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

and flavourings. "Old-fashioned" pear drops are 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 late summer into mid-autumn. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the Family (biology), family Rosaceae, bearing the Pome, po ...

-shaped

drop Drop, DROP, drops or DROPS may refer to: * Drop (liquid) or droplet, a small volume of liquid ** Eye drops, saline (sometimes mydriatic) drops used as medication for the eyes * Drop (unit), a unit of measure of volume * Falling (physics), allowing ...

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 ("original"). The artificial flavours

isoamyl acetate Isoamyl acetate, also known as isopentyl acetate, is an ester formed from isoamyl alcohol and acetic acid, with the molecular formula . It is a colorless liquid that is only slightly soluble in water, but very soluble in most organic solvents. ...

and

ethyl acetate Ethyl acetate commonly abbreviated EtOAc, ETAC or EA) is the organic compound with the formula , simplified to . This flammable, colorless liquid has a characteristic sweet smell (similar to pear drops) and is used in glues, nail polish removers, ...

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 chemical compound, compound derived from an acid (either organic or inorganic) in which the hydrogen atom (H) of at least one acidic hydroxyl group () of that acid is replaced by an organyl group (R). These compounds c ...

are used in many pear- and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

-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 ( "ozwel twizzel") is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England, southeast of Blackburn, contiguous with Accrington. The town has a rich industrial heritage, being home to James Hargreaves, inventor of the spinning j ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. 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 {{confection-stub