I still disagree, I dont care what anyone says you're all wrong! When I used to buy this from the shop when I was little if I asked for a quarter of Kali I got what I can only describe as flavoured suger crystals and when I asked for sherbert I got a white powdered substance.
Kali (or however you spell it) was like sort of fizzy sugar crystal type stuff whereas sherbert was (is) definitely white powder, like you get in a sherbert fountain with the stick of liquorice.
I am in my 60s and I can remember spending pennies on a bag of kayli (kay-lie) and liquorice to stick in and lick the kaylie off. If we didn't have the liquorice we would suck our finger and dip it in. We would have a laugh if we got lemon kayli - our fingers would look just like nicotine stain and we would pretend we had been smoking ciggies !!
It is, as previously mentioned, a coloured sugar, rather than sherbert, which is powdery.
Talk about a blast from the past - I haven't heard the word for about 30 years, and I can't remember ever seeing it written down.
Arabic etymology notwithstanding, the sherbet of my youth was definitely a powder. I don't think the colour was important (I vaguely remember white or pale yellow); the main thing was the licquorice stick for dipping.
But kaylay (sp?) was (is?) definitely crystaline, and if my memory serves me correctly, the colour was fluorescent rainbow trout.
kayli was indeed coloured/flavoured sugar...I have the fillings to prove it! hee hee.
I too used to suck my finger and dip it in Kayli, I had loads of it sadly.
sherbert was in sherbert sticks with the licorice in the top and inside flying saucers too.