Rip open a small sachet of fizzing sherbet, lick a lollipop, plunge it into the powder — it's one of the simplest ideas in British sweet-making, and it's kept children (and plenty of adults) occupied at the sweet counter for half a century. Whether you grew up calling it a Dip Dab or a Dib Dab, it's the same sweet, and its story is really the story of two rival confectioners chasing the same good idea.
Barratt's answer to the sherbet-dipping craze
The dipping-sweet format — a bag of sherbet paired with something to dip into it — wasn't Barratt's invention. Swizzels Matlow, the Derbyshire confectioner still based in New Mills today, had already found success with Double Dip: a sachet containing two separate sherbet flavours, orange and cherry, eaten by licking and dipping a plain "Swizzels stick" between the two. Double Dip went on to become hugely popular through the 1970s and 80s, reportedly becoming the best-selling sweet in Ireland by the end of the decade.
Barratt's Sherbet Dip Dab arrived in British shops in the mid-1970s as a direct answer to that success. The format was similar — a paper or foil bag of sherbet powder for dipping — but Barratt made one significant change: instead of a plain dipping stick, the Dip Dab came with a full strawberry-flavoured boiled-sweet lollipop. You licked the lollipop, dipped it in the sherbet, and worked your way through the bag as the lolly slowly disappeared, giving the sweet two distinct textures and flavours in one go.
Barratt: from 1848 to today
Barratt & Co. was founded in London in 1848 by George Osborne Barratt, and grew fast — by 1906 it was, by some accounts, the largest confectionery manufacturer in the world, and by the 1950s it was turning out more than 200 different sweets under its own name. Like most of Britain's old confectionery houses, ownership has moved around a lot since:
- 1966 — Barratt is acquired by Bassett's
- 1989 — Bassett's (and Barratt with it) is bought by Cadbury Schweppes
- 2008 — the business passes to Tangerine Confectionery, later renamed Valeo Confectionery
Through all of that, the Barratt name has stayed on the wrapper, and Dip Dab has stayed in production more or less unchanged — still a sherbet sachet, still a strawberry lolly, still sold as a Barratt product today. You'll find the wider range in our Barratt collection, and Swizzels' rival Double Dip sits in our Swizzels collection if you want to compare the two side by side.
So is it "Dib Dab" or "Dip Dab"?
Genuinely both, depending on who you ask and when they grew up. The name Barratt actually printed on the packet is Dip Dab — a fairly literal description of dipping the lollipop into the powder. But ask a room of British adults what they called it as kids, and a good number will insist it was a "Dib Dab." That's not really a competing product; it's the same sweet remembered under a slightly rhymier name, the kind of flip-flop, dilly-dally sound pattern English loves to fall into. Both spellings turn up on resale packaging and in nostalgia writing today, which is exactly why the mix-up has stuck around so long. It's one of dozens of sherbet-and-dipping classics in our Retro Sweets collection, alongside the other tuck-shop staples of the same era.
Frequently asked questions
Is it spelled Dib Dab or Dip Dab?
Dip Dab is Barratt's official name for the sweet. Dib Dab is a common colloquial variant many people remember from childhood, describing the exact same product.
Who makes Dip Dab?
Barratt, founded in 1848, still makes it today under the Valeo Confectionery/Tangerine Confectionery group, after passing through Bassett's and Cadbury Schweppes ownership along the way.
What's the difference between Dip Dab and Double Dip?
Double Dip is Swizzels Matlow's two-flavour sherbet dip with a plain stick; Dip Dab is Barratt's version, which swaps the stick for a strawberry lollipop.
How do you eat a Dip Dab?
Open the sherbet sachet, then lick and dip the lollipop into the powder repeatedly until both the sherbet and the lolly are gone.