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Sherbet Day
"🎶 I was walking along
Mindin' my business
When out of the orange colored sky
Flash, Bam, Alakazam
Wonderful you came by
I was hummin' a tune
Drinkin' in sunshine
When out of that orange colored view
Wham, Bam, Alakazam
I got a look at you"
~ Orange Colored Sky, Nat King Cole, 1950
Flash, Bam, Alakazam! Orange rainbow sunset skies and orange rainbow sherbet, we salute you with this unusual dessert-coloured tartan!
Brilliant orange skies can appear when sunlight travels through enough atmosphere that shorter wavelengths—blues and violets—are scattered away, leaving longer wavelengths like red and orange to dominate what we see. This is most noticeable at sunrise and sunset, when the sun is low and its light passes through a thicker layer of air. Dust, moisture, and tiny particles in the atmosphere can intensify the effect, deepening the color from pale amber to a saturated, almost copper glow!
One common instance of unusually vivid orange skies comes from wildfire smoke! Especially in recent years, especially in the western United States, entire afternoons have taken on a dim, orange cast as smoke filters the sunlight. The effect can be striking but eerie and also signals poor air quality and hazardous conditions.
Volcanic eruptions can also create similar effects on a larger scale. Ash and sulfur dioxide injected high into the atmosphere can spread across regions or even globally. After the eruption of Krakatoa in1883, reports described unusually vivid red and orange sunsets around the world for months!
Urban environments can also produce orange skies under certain conditions. High levels of air pollution—particularly aerosols from vehicles and industry—can scatter light toward warmer hues, especially near the horizon. And In desert regions, dust storms can have a similar effect, turning the sky a muted orange or brown as airborne sand filters the sunlight.
Happier circumstances would be happening this lovely tartan, which puts one more in mind of a delicious bowl of orange or rainbow sherbet! Sherbet traces its roots to the Middle East, where a chilled fruit drink called sharbat (from the Arabic šariba, “to drink”) was made with juice, sugar, and water—often cooled with snow.
In the United States, sherbet achieved peak popularity in the 1940s through the 1970s as a frozen dessert with a small amount of dairy, appearing as a light and creamy dessert on many mid-century menus. And the most popular flavour? Orange of course! 🧡 💗 💛 💜 🍨 🍊 🍊 🍊
The word sherbet has traveled a long and rather winding path, and its meaning today depends very much on where you are. Its origins lie in the Middle East, in the Arabic word sharbat, derived from shariba—“to drink.” These early sherbets were not frozen at all, but cooling beverages made from fruit juices, water, and sugar, often chilled with snow or ice brought down from mountains. From Persia and the Ottoman Empire, the drink spread into Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, where it was embraced as an exotic and refreshing luxury.
In the United Kingdom, the meaning of sherbet took a distinctly different turn. By the 19th century, “sherbet” had come to refer not to a drink or a frozen dessert, but to a fizzy powder sweet. This confection—typically a mixture of sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and an acid such as tartaric acid—creates a gentle effervescence when it touches the tongue. It became especially popular in Victorian Britain, when chemists and confectioners experimented with aerated sweets. Sherbet was often sold on its own or used as a filling for sweets like sherbet lemons or liquorice dips, and it remains a nostalgic treat associated with traditional British sweet shops.
In the United States and parts of Europe, however, sherbet evolved in a different direction, closely tied to the history of frozen desserts. Here, the term came to describe a fruit-based frozen treat that includes a small amount of dairy—typically milk or cream—giving it a smoother texture than sorbet, which is dairy-free. This version of sherbet traces its lineage to Italian sorbetto, a frozen dessert that developed during the Renaissance. One of the earliest recorded recipes appears in the 17th century, credited to the Italian cook Antonio Latini. As techniques for freezing and preserving ice improved, these fruit ices spread across Europe and eventually to America.
By the 19th and early 20th centuries, frozen sherbet had become a popular dessert in the United States, especially as ice became more widely available and mechanical refrigeration emerged. Regulations eventually helped define it: in the U.S., sherbet typically contains between 1% and 2% milk fat, distinguishing it from both ice cream (which has more fat) and sorbet (which has none).
To distinguish between your frozen desserts, ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, gelato, and more ... click the view of an "orange-colred sky" during sunset from an airplne.