When it bubbles, foams and tingles - then it is effervescent powder

As early as the 19th century, effervescent powder was made using tartaric acid.

At the end of the 19th century, there were already flavoured variants that tasted of ginger or peppermint. It was also used for medicines to make the taste more pleasant, for example in a sulphur effervescent powder.

The first industrially produced effervescent powder was made in the 19th century by the Stollwerck company in Cologne. The powder consisted of evaporated fruit juices, cane sugar, citric acid and sodium hydrogen carbonate.

After the Second World War, ready-made lemonades became more and more popular, and the effervescent powder hardly played a role for drinks any more. In the 1970s and 1980s, children liked to pour effervescent powder onto their hands and lick it off, as it then tingled pleasantly in their mouths.

Effervescent tablets with vitamins or minerals are also available, and these are usually flavoured as well.

Nowadays, young people sometimes consume sherbet powder together with alcohol, especially with Korn or vodka, mixing the powder with the alcohol in their mouths.