Few British sweets come with their own coat of arms, but Soor Plooms do — a small, sharply sour boiled sweet from the Scottish Borders that carries a genuine piece of local military folklore in its name.
A sweet built on local legend
The name is straightforward Scots: "soor ploom" simply means sour plum. The story behind it, tied to the town of Galashiels, tells of a group of local men who came across a band of English raiders distracted by eating wild sour plums growing nearby, and used the moment to ambush and defeat them. The tale became civic identity: Galashiels still commemorates it in the annual Braw Lads' Gathering festival, and a plum tree features on the town's heraldic emblem.
What the sweet actually tastes like
True to the name, Soor Plooms are made to be genuinely sour — hard-boiled, plum-coloured green sweets with a sharp, tart outer shell around a milder, sweeter centre. That two-stage flavour, sour first and sweet after, is what separates them from most traditional boiled sweets, which tend to hold one flavour all the way through.
Part of Scotland's boiled-sweet tradition
Soor Plooms sit alongside sweets like Jethart Snails and Berwick Cockles as part of a wider Scottish and Borders tradition of boiled sweets tied to a specific town's history rather than mass-market branding — genuine pieces of retro sweets heritage still made much as they always were.
Frequently asked questions
What are Soor Plooms?
Soor Plooms are hard-boiled, plum-shaped sweets, coloured green and flavoured to be sharply sour on the outside with a sweeter centre, traditionally associated with the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders.
What is the Galashiels sour plum legend?
Local legend holds that a band of English raiders was ambushed and defeated near Galashiels while distracted eating wild sour plums, an event still commemorated in the town's Braw Lads' Gathering festival and its heraldic plum-tree emblem.
Does soor ploom just mean sour plum?
Yes. Soor ploom is simply the Scots-language phrase for sour plum, and the sweet takes both its name and its tart flavour directly from that meaning.