There are sweets you eat and sweets you experience. Rainbow Drops fall somewhere between the two. Tiny, crunchy, intensely colourful puffed rice pieces coated in a sweet, slightly waxy shell with a faint fruity flavour. They are not the most complex sweet ever made. They are not trying to be. But there is something about a handful of Rainbow Drops that feels exactly right in a way that is hard to explain and very easy to eat.
They have been a staple of British pick n mix since the 1950s and they show no sign of going anywhere.
What are Rainbow Drops?
They are small, oval-shaped sweets made from puffed rice coated in a coloured, flavoured sugar shell. Each colour corresponds to a different fruit flavour. The texture is light and crispy rather than chewy, which puts them in a different category to most other pick n mix options and makes them a useful contrast piece in any mixed sweet selection.
They are made by Tangerine Confectionery, which also produces a range of other British retro sweets. Despite the simple format they have remained largely unchanged since they first appeared in the 1950s. The colours, the puffed rice base, the slightly waxy shell. All of it has stayed consistent across seven decades, which is about as strong a vote of confidence in a product as you can get.
What flavours do they come in?
Each colour in has its own fruit flavour. The range typically includes:
Red: strawberry or raspberry Orange: orange Yellow: lemon Green: lime or apple Purple: blackcurrant Pink: strawberry or bubblegum, depending on the variety
The flavours are light rather than intense. Rainbow Drops are not a sweet that announces itself loudly. The colour is the most prominent thing about them visually and the flavour follows underneath, sweet and fruity without being overpowering. That subtlety is part of why they work so well in a mixed pick n mix selection rather than being eaten on their own.
The history of Rainbow Drops
Rainbow Drops appeared in UK sweet shops in the 1950s, at a time when pick n mix counters were a fixture of every market town high street. The concept was simple: take something light and crunchy, coat it in colour, price it cheaply enough for pocket money and put it where children can see it. That formula worked then and still works now.
The brand passed through various owners over the decades before ending up with Tangerine Confectionery, one of the larger British confectionery manufacturers. Unlike many retro sweets that got reformulated or resized at some point in their history, Rainbow Drops have stayed remarkably close to the original. The bags look slightly different to what they did in 1970 but the sweet inside is essentially the same product.
Part of their longevity comes from the fact they are genuinely useful in a pick n mix context. The light texture provides contrast to heavier, chewier sweets. The colours are visually striking in a jar or bowl. And the portion size, small enough that you need a handful to feel like you have had anything, means you naturally eat more of them than you planned.
Are They vegan?
They do not contain gelatine, which puts them ahead of a lot of pick n mix options for vegan buyers. The ingredients are primarily sugar, puffed rice, glucose syrup and colourings. Most colourings used are plant-based.
That said, formulations can change and manufacturing conditions vary, so if you are strictly vegan it is worth checking the current packaging before ordering. As a general guide, Rainbow Drops are one of the more vegan-friendly options in the traditional pick n mix category.
How to use Rainbow Drops in pick n mix and party setups
They are one of those sweets that looks better than almost anything else in a jar or a bowl. The colours are consistent and striking, they do not clump together or melt at room temperature, and the small size means they fill space efficiently without dominating a display visually.
For colour-themed party sweet tables, Rainbow Drops are an obvious choice because you get every colour in one product. For a pick n mix selection they work best as a contrast piece alongside heavier, chewier sweets like cola bottles, foam shrimps and jelly sweets.
In party bags they are particularly useful because they are light, do not make a mess and look colourful without adding much weight or bulk to the bag.
Where to buy Them online
They disappeared from many supermarket shelves years ago and are now much easier to find online than in physical shops. We stock two formats at One Pound Sweets: a box of 24 Rainbow Drops bags at 32g each for larger sharing bags, and a box of 60 Rainbow Drops bags at 10g each which is ideal for party bags, tuck shops and events where you need a lot of individual portions at low cost.
Both are available with fast UK delivery and work out considerably cheaper per bag than buying the occasional pack from a corner shop or newsagent.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about Rainbow Drops