A
pear drop is a British
boiled sweet made from
sugar and
flavourings. The classic pear drop is a combination of half pink and half yellow in a
pear-shaped
drop about the size of a thumbnail, although they are more commonly found in packets containing separate yellow drops and pink drops in roughly equal proportions. The artificial flavours
isoamyl acetate and
ethyl acetate are responsible for the characteristic flavour of pear drops: the former confers a banana flavour, the latter a pear flavour. Both
esters are used in many pear and
banana flavoured sweets. However, a natural pear-derived product from pear juice concentrate is sometimes used.