Sovereign Hill Raspberry Drops 185g

Raspberry drops are hard-boiled raspberry lollies, sweet with a sour edge, made by hand at Brown's Confectionery Manufactory at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. They are the ones you watch being poured onto the slab, cut and rolled on the shop floor, and this is the same 185g bag, sent anywhere in Australia rather than carried home from the gift shop.

The recipe is a Victorian one and so is the method. Sugar and glucose are boiled to hard-crack, flavour and colour are worked through by hand, and the sheet is cut while it is still hot enough to move. That is why no two bags are identical and why the edges are never quite uniform. The batch size is limited by the size of the copper pan, not by a machine.

Where do the raspberry drops come from?

Brown's Confectionery Manufactory started in Dunolly, north of Ballarat, in 1857, moved into Ballarat late in the nineteenth century and closed in 1974. The Brown family donated the equipment to Sovereign Hill, which is why the sweets made at the outdoor museum today come off the original plant. There is a longer account of the method in how boiled lollies are made by hand, and why it still matters.

Where can I buy Sovereign Hill raspberry drops?

On this page, without the drive to Ballarat. Orders placed before 12pm on a weekday are dispatched the same day from our Corio, VIC warehouse, tracked with Australia Post. We are an online stockist and cannot tell you what any particular shop has on shelf.

Are raspberry drops gluten free?

No. The glucose in them is derived from wheat, and the pack also says peanuts may be present, so they are not suitable if you are avoiding gluten or peanuts. The full list is sugar, glucose (derived from wheat), citric acid (330), flavour and colours 102 and 123, with canola oil, maize starch and rice flour as processing aids. Sweets that do carry their own gluten free labelling are in gluten free options.

What else does the Sovereign Hill lolly shop make?

The raspberry drops are the famous one, but the same bench turns out acid drops, eucalyptus drops, salted caramel drops, barley sugar and strawberries and cream. The full range is on the Sovereign Hill brand page, and the rest of our sweets are in confectionery.