Sherbet lemon (getting OT)/US translation

[aichambaye at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 12942

Neil wrote: 

> Amanda suggested:
> 
> > Yes. Sherbet lemon is Brit for lemon drop.
> 
> Despite the compelling evidence presented by Amanda, lemon drops 
> and sherbet lemons are not the same thing.  A lemon drop is a solid 
> boiled sweet (US: hard candy?) and a sherbet lemon (or 
lemon .sherbet) is similar but with a centre full of effervescent 
sherbet  powder; often called just a 'sherbet'. I guess the US 
translators got a bit confused somewhere along the way...
> 
> 
> Neil
> 

Well, I don't think it's confusion so much as familiarity with an 
American muggle candy called "Lemonheads" which are made with lots of 
sugar and have a sour lemon coating. They are not hard candies. When 
someone says "lemon drops" I think of those little yellow candies, so 
sour and lemony on the outside and so intensly sweet on the inside. 
Lemon sherbet in the USA is a frozen lemon iced treat (like ice 
cream, but no cream).

So in SS when Dumbledore eats lemon drops, I didn't imagine him 
sucking on a hard candy; rather, eating a sweet and sour squishy that 
comes in a box of ~30. When I read PS, lemon sherbet didn't mystify 
me, but I promise if I hadn't read SS first, I would have 
thought "Good heavens, what in the world??????" 

But, what is effervescent sherbet powder????


Heather M., 
who has eaten a LOT of Lemonheads, and considers that if they are 
like sherbet lemons, Dumbledore has exceedingly good taste in 
candies, although she hasn't seen him eat any caramels.